At Any Cost
by Islagatt
Summary: Naruto, insane by conventional measurement Sasuke, almost human Sakura, helpless, increasingly psychotic fangirl and Hinata, a puzzle. Watch the story of Naruto, when he wasn't born with morals.
1. Prologue

At Any Cost

Being face to face with a demon will do things to you every now and again. Being its jailer does a little bit more than scare you.

Oh right, Naruto doesn't belong to me.

As usual, I've only seen the anime, never read the manga, please do not be irate.

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"You are the Kyuubi no Kitsune!" Mizuki's voice rang out across the woodland scene, stilling the sounds of the forest, the animals scattered in fear, and the two other ninja present caught up in their own internal processes.

Oddly, the blonde ninja laughed while the whirling shuriken flew towards him, the wonderful, giddy laugh of the insane. Mizuki's eyes narrowed in uncomprehending fear as his massive shuriken simply _stopped_ in mid-air, what in god's name was going on here? The ninja trainee just kept laughing as he stepped forward and grabbed the shuriken from the air, bolting forward again and leaving his badly injured sensei where he was.

"Human fool! I am not the Kyuubi no Kitsune! I am merely its vessel, and its pardoner!" his voice thundered unnaturally over the forest, murderous joy shining in his bloodshot eyes. The grey-haired nin had just enough time to leap backwards to another branch before the blonde struck where he had just stood.

**Kill him.** _Silence demon! _**REND HIS FLESH FROM THE BONE! **_Another word and you shall receive that torment yourself while I keep you agonizingly alive._

Tinges of visible red exploded from beneath the blonde nin's feet and threw him into the air. Honestly, at this point Mizuki's instincts were raging at him that his victim had so many openings in his moves that he should take advantage and kill him, but he couldn't make himself move. His body just wouldn't answer his instincts, mostly because he was too stunned, the academy's dead last should not have this kind of power, he couldn't be tapping the Kyuubi could he?

At the apex of his acrobatic feat, the blonde released a torrent of that baleful chakra, the integral killing intent of and just the pressure of it bringing the traitor to his knees. The shuriken spun madly in the leaping ninja's hand, the air whining pitifully as it was sliced neatly, the arm swung forward and the blade dug into the hair, and the flesh, and the skull and then the brain, the motion tugged the skull and slit it away, the braincase exploding outward from the starting point at the base of the neck before the out-of-control blade flew away and stuck into a tree.

The blonde glared evilly at the rebellious shuriken before he lifted the supplies Mizuki had been carrying. A pair of kunai and a few handfuls of shuriken, the two tremendous ones as well but… meh, what of them? Oh, shit! He had forgotten all about Iruka, he turned to look for his injured sensei and saw him laying face-down in the mud.

"No no no, don't be dead Iruka-sensei!" check the pulse? Faint, but it's there, thank gods. ANBU weren't stupid, they'd find them soon, right? Yes, absolutely. Stay with sensei, make sure they take him to the hospital.

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How might that scene look to an ANBU? One academy instructor with his head exploded, another badly injured and unconscious with the demon child almost crying over him? To most it might look very bad for a certain demon vessel, but Hatake Kakashi was not most ANBU… in fact he was no ANBU, anymore at least. He happened upon this scene and wordlessly picked up the hysterical blonde and his academy teacher, and launched himself through the trees with his human cargo.

The hospital staff whisked away the injured teacher and the blonde made to follow them, an unexpected hand on his shoulder halted him. Killing intent whipped up in a frenzied storm around him as he turned to look at the grey-haired jounin, his azure eyes going bloodshot once more.

That level of killing intent was enough to kill small animals, but the trainee evidenced amazing control over it and had it quite squarely focused on one Hatake Kakashi. The aforementioned nin was nigh rooted to the spot in terror, but he was a ninja, and he was trained to ignore his fear, all he said in answer to his unspoken question was "The hokage needs to see you. Now."

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Vessel's perspective:

Now there are really only two people I respect and give a shit about in this crap-shoot, Iruka-sensei –currently being wheeled into intensive care- and Hokage-ojiisan. Hospital staff has never done a damnable thing for me, I don't trust 'em, but they seemed worried about sensei.

Damn it.

So I nod and the spike-headed freak lets go of my shoulder. Oh right, I let up on the killing intent, I have to work on that, its getting out of hand again, maybe meditation excercises?

Hmm, we're moving now, did I mean to do that? Crap, the sinner must be trying to reach out of his punishment again, hehehe… Oooh I bet that hurt.

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Normal Perspective:

The blonde midget started snickering with sadistic glee at something his natural killing joy flowing freely as he did. The ninja in front of him felt his stomach turn at the bizarre cross between insanity and killing intent, and unconsciously increased his pace towards the Hokage tower. At a more active level he was impressed that the trainee could keep up with him over the rooftops, but the amount of chakra he was using with each leap was far in excess of the normal need.

Kakashi wasn't entirely sure if that was more or less impressive.

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"What made you think that you could graduate after you failed the exam proper?"

The Sandaime didn't want to be this way with his favorite ninja trainee. He knew that the boy was in the right, after he had explained Mizuki's offer the failed genin test and what he had done in the forest.

He hadn't mentioned drawing out the Kyuubi's power though. He had made no inference of it and so his next words put the hokage ill at ease.

"I know how strong I am, I put Mizuki-sensei in his place after all didn't I?" Naruto beamed a wide grin at the hokage before he continued. "But you owe me old man, I did the execution bit since he mentioned me being Kyuubi an' all, so what's the story behind that? I know I'm not really the demon, that I'm its container, but how did that happen? Was the fourth really that shitty?" That got a reaction

"NARUTO! Do not speak ill of the Yondaime!" Hatake's voice, oddly enough.

"And why not? I've been told, just like all the children, that he killed the demon, and I find out that it's a lie? What am I supposed to think about ol' short-office?" (1) Sarutobi stared at the blonde, dumbstruck by his blatant hate of the fourth, what the devil brought this on? Other than a lifetime of hatred and derision… hm.

"Because it was a demon, Naruto. It couldn't possibly be killed, so he made sure to forever isolate it from this plane by binding it into you, he wished for you to be seen as a hero-"

"Bah, villains last longer in history," the hokage winced.

"You aren't thinking of betraying the village are you?"

"Never crossed my mind, ojiisan, just making an observation. We have more training to do since I didn't graduate… Guess I'll just graduate with everyone else eh, Hokage-jiisan?" He left in that particular way that was exclusive to himself. Leaving the Hokage to ponder the eleven-year-old's actions with his head in his hands. Again the perpetually late jounin interrupted his reverie.

"Hokage-sama, when he graduates, please place him on my team." Before the hokage could question or even acknowledge the jounin, he had vanished in that oh-so-Kakashi manner of leaving. The hokage turned and glared at a portrait of the Yondaime.

"You know, I hate you sometimes…"

Author's Note: This story has been sitting in my compy for a while now. I just wondered what'd happen if Naruto acted like other people probably would, being tempted with a source of practically unlimited power and never having been given a set of common values.

Sinner- The Kyuubi, of course. For a switch I'm not gonna give fuzzy much characterization in this, the demon will be as insane as Shukaku.

Pardoner- Naruto feels, that as the demon's carrier he is also supposed to make it suffer until it has proven worthy of life and freedom again.

Insanity- Lots of it all around, really it's only seeming to be insane because he doesn't suffer accepted standards, values and mores. Then again, isn't that the normal meaning?

Short Office- Yondaime was hokage for months. MONTHS. Sarutobi has been hokage for not years, DECADES.

Review? Please?


	2. Chapter 1

At Any Cost

Chapter 1

Losing your sensei is confusing. Losing your father hurts.

I don't own Naruto, or any characters therein.

I only watched the anime of Naruto, never saw the manga.

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A year had passed since his second failed exam, and Uzumaki Naruto sat as quietly as he had since that day. He stared at the teacher in the front of the room, not really seeing the chuunin as he described the test, and why would he? He would pass this exam because the hokage had ordered it, though he wasn't supposed to know that.

The class avoided him, except for the insect-user Aburame Shino. Orange-clad sat next to the thoroughly disguised kid ever since one month after he failed, until that day he had been a bit more unstable than normal, forcing cheerfulness that everyone now saw was fake, that everyone believed now had always been fake. This sudden disbelief freed him from having to maintain his desperate façade, and he quickly turned into the same kind of recluse as Sasuke and Shino, the only difference being that he never focused on the class, he just stared ahead at their instructor.

If he'd had a friend, they might've tried to bring back that spark of life he'd possessed before, but those he'd run with in his younger days let him sink into whatever funk he'd gotten into, they didn't even try to understand what it was, though Shikamaru had a guess. He knew that Naruto was close to Iruka, he knew that acceptance and personal ties were far more significant to the once boisterous and thoroughly troublesome child than they were to most of their classmates. Logically, the Nara child deduced that it was Iruka's death that had put Naruto in such a sorry state.

Oh yes, Iruka's wounds were far more significant than had been initially supposed, one of his lungs had been punctured by the shuriken Mizuki had hit him with and a fragment of the rib that had broken as a result had compressed his heart against the deflated lung. He'd never gotten out of the hospital, he hadn't even woken up again.

What Shikamaru couldn't puzzle out was why Naruto had dismissed their new teacher so coldly when he tried to extend courtesy and friendship to the child. Rather than worry about it, the lazy trainee ninja decided to catch up on his sleep.

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Genin exams, time for those again, a whole year had gone by and he'd scarcely noticed it. _Oh well, not like I can learn anything here…_ He took Iruka's death hard, and blamed his inability to move faster, his lack of strength, and his dependence on others. Though he'd never admit it to himself, Naruto just wanted to throw himself completely into his training so he could avoid feeling anything towards anyone else ever again.

As with previous years, he remained dead-last in all their tests and exams, he never had the attention span now, even if the techniques were becoming a second nature because of his new sensei's training methods. _Sensei's too strong a word I think, trainer? Seems more appropriate… _Hatake Kakashi hadn't once said anything about his impotent anger over Iruka's death, something for which Naruto was eternally grateful, though he had done one thing vastly inappropriate…

Kakashi knew that Naruto was more or less the same as he was, and that was why he trained him. He knew that the boy thought too much about his failings, and so he gave him the same item that helped him forget about what he hadn't done, it didn't hurt any that they were both massively perverted. Icha Icha Paradise, a book the blonde had steadfastly ignored for six months, became his favorite possession over the span of a three-day weekend and there were no end to the occasions that his fingers itched to hold the book while he sat, numbly staring ahead.

"… uto. Hey, c'mon kid get movin'," some random teacher had come in to pull in the next recruit. _Whatever_. The indicated genin-to-be stood, noticing that apart from that Ino girl and a few others he didn't remember, he was the last one. _Hmph_.

Naruto followed after the teacher, whose name he never bothered to learn, down the hallway to a classroom with his normal teacher, whose name he'd never bothered to learn. His guide took his seat and his normal instructor spoke calmly and evenly.

"Now Naruto if you could get your mind with us for one minute instead of with Iruka, please create at least three clones," this particular sensei knew precisely what buttons to press to get the best out of a student. He had saved this trump card against Naruto for just this exam, and it worked with frightening efficacy.

It was frightening because the trainee's eyes went bloodshot and immediately the dozen or so shadow clones he had just created (without the use of a seal, though at a massive expenditure of chakra) cracked their knuckles menacingly, amplifying the dreadful feeling created by his outpouring of killing intent. With a withering glare he reigned himself in and dispelled the clones, nodding at the barely whispered 'pass' before taking his hitai-ate and leaving the room. Still holding the plate in his hand he stopped at the unexpected wall of grayish-blue coat in front of him.

Azure eyes barely containing his pained rage drifted up and came to lock with the shaded eyes of the Aburame genius. Of all the people in his class, Naruto might've considered Shino the closest thing to a friend, this year had seen the Aburame evidence genuine concern for his well-being on his worse-off days. As ever he barely spoke in these displays, and so what he did surprised the Uzumaki greatly.

The pale hand drifted out of his pocket and latched firmly onto the blonde's shoulder. "He'd be proud of you right now," that was also 'congratulations' and 'continue to live in the way he would approve of' for the reclusive insect-user. As usual, the words shocked most of the melancholy out of Naruto's head, and he gave a bitter, but genuine smile.

"Right. Thanks Shino," also meaning 'I'm going to go train' and 'see you tomorrow'. The two spoke in what others believed to be code, but for the two, they just understood each other more than one would think natural, one above emotion, the other totally absorbed in it, it was their distance from the average that put them at the same level.

No one thought of any of that though, as Naruto and Shino walked down the hallway in opposite directions. They just noticed the creeps talking again, and didn't bother much more than that, indulging in that fabulous human tendency to ignore the obscured.

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Naruto brightened immediately after leaving the school grounds, the whole place was Iruka to him, and while even away from it he could be hurt by his reminders of him, it wasn't the same omnipresence that he felt on the school grounds. He went at speed to the training grounds he always met his trainer at, the same place he trained his static genjutsu on by hiding Kakashi's training scrolls. And… the place where he knelt before a bizarrely shaped stone, offering a silent prayer and a free ramen certificate to his departed father-figure.

He wasn't surprised to see Kakashi there, also praying for his former teammate. Naruto looked at him and realized that in just that one year, he had lost his father, gained a friend and an older brother, and lost sight of his reasoning. _Yeah, Iruka-otousan, I promise that after today I'll move on. I'll punish the sinner again, and I'll get strong, I will become strong for your memory. _

The genin-candidate folded his legs beneath him and stood up, he looked to his trainer again and spoke up. "Kakashi, after today, I'm leaving Iruka here. I think that everyone else here will be able to keep him company… What do you think?"

Kakashi didn't take his eye off of the one name on the stone. It held his mind and his presence captive, bastard Obito actually won out in the end. "That's good… I think it's time to start your training now isn't it? Oh and congratulations on passing," in his traditional fashion, Kakashi danced around the actual question, prompting a brief incredulous look and a shrug.

"Yeah I guess, but Kakashi…" He turned into the little boy from over a year ago again, somehow turning from somber to insane in a blink. "I'm not gonna go easy on you anymore, I'll take my full share of the Kyuubi's power when we spar from now on, so give it everything you've got!" Kakashi blinked briefly at his student, and then his eye curved upwards.

"Well since you've been holding back on me, let's see where you're really at!" He leapt away from his student again, slipping into a loose defensive stance while the blonde locked his hands together and began to wrap himself in bands of blazing red chakra. _Mmmm… Maybe I shouldn't have done this…_

Before he could get out another thought, Naruto exploded from where he stood, burning red enveloping his body, his crappy chakra control irrelevant in the face of the impossible quantities of chakra he was throwing around. This was his style of really fighting, impossible for anyone but a demon vessel, and more destructive than Gai's style using the eight celestial gates, because it burned out the fine web of chakra paths in the body, it scarred tenketsus and rendered them useless… unless a demon was healing your body as it fought.

Kakashi was having a hard time, not because Naruto was skilled at taijutsu, or because his fearsome ninjutsu threatened to vaporize him, or because a skillful genjutsu awaited him at every turn. None of these were things Naruto had or could do, no, just the fact of how _fast_ and _powerful_ each punch or kick or slam was.

That said, his moves were so predictable that he didn't even need his Sharingan to evade the moves, or neutralize them before they got off. Of course that was an issue of not being able to ever really practice this style, or develop it at all from the rudimentary and frenzied swings that it utilized. Kakashi though couldn't help but notice now just how much his on and off student was slowing down each time he swung and how his expression belied the pain in his body that grew with each motion enhanced by the demon's strength and speed.

_Fuck. This. Hurts. Why. Can't. I. Hit. Him! _Kakashi threw out a fist but the blonde held onto the appendage by enveloping it in chakra. While his sensei was still surprised the blonde leapt forward and landed a red-glowing fist into the masked face of his opponent, sending the grey-haired man flying away into a tree.

"HELL YEAH!" Naruto cried out to no one in particular shortly before falling backwards and struggling to breathe, more than a little exhausted by his strenuous routine. As he passed into blissful sleep, Kakashi roused himself and gingerly caressed his battered face. He walked towards his fallen student and looked him over curiously before giving a shrug and picking him up.

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Kakashi grumbled a little at the heavy load of his sort of driftwood student, and was quite thankful when he found opportunity to set the kid down on his couch. A quick glance at the clock told him he had twenty four hours of reading time, and Naruto had only twenty hours to sleep, assuming he wanted to get to class on time. A part of Kakashi wished that the blonde wouldn't care about getting to class on time anyway, perhaps even showing up an hour or two late like his sensei?

Bah, not like that'd ever happen. The graying shinobi shucked his burden off from his shoulder into a couch in the aforementioned blonde's home. Quickly he'd moved away from the child to look in the bookcase, comparing his collection with the blonde genin's. He was mildly surprised that each of Naruto's books were even more lovingly worn-out than his own were, but there were much fewer of them. Kakashi decided this was likely from Naruto's difficulty when it came to buying things.

For reasons that the jounin had yet to decide on, his student was frequently found to be paying several times the actual sale price of items. He knew the blonde contained the Kyuubi, and some very sinister portion of Kakashi believed that the shopkeepers overcharged him thinking that he was one with the ancient demon. The majority of Kakashi's mind was actually quite naïve, and discounted the notion.

He left behind a few of his older books, ones Naruto didn't have it seemed, and left the apartment to let his student sleep off his exertion.

End Chapter 1 At Any Cost

Uhm… there were thoughts I had… But I'm really sleepy right now…

Aidis: TOM CRUISE FOR PRESIDENT!

Islagatt: Down with the whole system, autocracy! Furious D for the indisputable governor of north and south America.


	3. Chapter 2

At Any Cost

Chapter 2

Other people are worthless, 'til proven strong.

I do not own Naruto.

I do not read the manga, I do not want to.

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When Naruto woke up again it was dawn. Loud popping sounds erupted from his spine and his shoulders, then his knees when he stood. In a fashion remarkably like the undead, he shambled to his endless supply of instant food. He didn't bother to grimace at the ramen, he didn't have the energy yet. Water set to boiling, noodles softening in the scalding water, the boy reached within himself and tugged on the demon's chakra, letting power surge through his body.

He let out a reluctant groan at the wonderful feeling of being stronger than anything in the world, because it just didn't do to let anyone know how enjoyable things like that were. But it woke him up, and now he had the enthusiasm to grimace at his ramen, he poured it out into a bowl and tossed the seasonings in. Wolfing down the soup and noodles quickly so he didn't taste it, he looked around his home.

The home, if one could call the wretched place that, had been more than enough for him once. And it still was, but he knew how much more others had. Knowing that others had more would have made him angsty, jealous maybe, but for the fact that he knew how important he really was.

By important he meant strong. Strong in spirit, strong in heart, in conviction, all those things were irrelevant, but he was stronger than anyone else in those too. All he really cared about, was that he was powerful enough to beat down anyone he wished to in a battle. And in the end, Uzumaki Naruto knew that battle was the only life he could have, or wanted to take part in.

So he hated his shitty apartment, and he hated that ramen that he ate every bloody day, he hated a hundred other things in his life. But he loved his life all the same, because he was powerful, and that mattered if only to him.

Still, he really didn't want to stink like he currently did when he was assigned a couple of unimportant losers later on today. So he hopped into the shower and hosed himself down, pulled on his bright orange clothes, and did the hardest thing of his day.

Why he tortured himself like this every single day, he didn't know. Perhaps it was some twisted adherence to the philosophy of no pain no gain, perhaps he was actually subconsciously a masochist. Perhaps he was mature enough to know that he needed to bring things besides his entire icha icha collection.

So as with every morning, he had to decide which book to bring. Already he'd read each of these at least a dozen times. He noticed now, that there were suddenly three new books there, a quiet gasp escaped him and he gathered the new books up in his arms, hugging them fiercely. He set aside the books, making a note to take them all with him when he went to the academy today, and bolted from his home to train.

'Training' as defined by the psychotic, power-hungry freak meant letting his body run across the rooftops in a circuit of a portion of the village while he set himself to torturing the nine-tailed fox in his stomach, forcibly taking its chakra and infusing it directly into his body as he ran. As usual, he stopped when he felt his body burning, a searing all-consuming conflagration that he knew was chakra overload. He returned home, made another bowl of ramen and furthered his study of eating without tasting.

By now he was going to be late, so he grabbed up his books and made for the academy at a leisurely pace, his first new volume already open in his hand, sending a blush creeping over his features while he giggled in a manner much like a certain special jounin.

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He was half an hour late when he arrived in his classroom, nose still buried in his book. The teacher sent him a glare that would petrify nearly any of the other students, but Naruto responded with a casual wave. "Yo." Was all he said. He sat down in the back of the class, near to Shino as usual. The Aburame gave his 'friend' a strange look (in Shino's body language a raised eyebrow and looking at someone is a 'weird look')

"Naruto, why of all days, were you late today? And then on top of that you interrupted the graduation speech that happens to be a tradition of this village!" The aforementioned sensei was still glaring at him. Naruto glanced up from his book for a moment and thought.

"I… got lost. On the road of life." He nodded, that seemed proper, and went back to reading trashy sex scenes. One frustrated sigh later, and the speech was resumed. It didn't last much longer (probably not helped by the occasional giggling sound, or the distracting sight of Shino's face being bright pink). And their teacher told them their teams.

Now Naruto genuinely hoped to be on the same team as Shino, but he found it quite unlikely that he would put on such a team. After all, they got along very well, and they were friends, to the point Naruto even trusted him. But their talents were different, and Shino wasn't the top of the class.

Apparently his internal review took up a lot of his mind, because he didn't hear the teacher speaking for some considerable time. He picked up again at "and Uzumaki Naruto. Team Eight will be…" and he faded out again. Pissed as all fuck.

He set down the book and waited patiently, once Shino's name was called out and his group was finished, Naruto glanced to him without moving much. A slight sound passed from Naruto, but up in the room's corner, it wasn't noticed. The Aburame responded with similar volume. Naruto managed to keep his outrage at the answer quiet for a brief while. Eventually the teacher concluded his final speech, and left, praying the jounin would arrive soon. Upon being freed of supervision, Naruto took to the ceiling and started reading again.

People didn't look to see him, well, Uchiha Sasuke did, and Haruno Sakura did, both seeking to gain some kind of insight into why he was so strange today, and what kind of portent that held for the team. They saw him on the ceiling, and made no remarks. Sakura put the notion from her mind automatically, out of habit, and Sasuke looked away with a darker scowl than normal.

When his giggling got annoying to the conversation beneath him, he was saved by an instructor coming in and calling that particular group away at that moment. Not long after most of the other instructors came by for their own students. When a black-haired woman with red eyes came in to round up team ten he called out "Hey Shino," _I won't see you at school anymore_.

Naruto gave a slight nod. "Yeah, yeah, don't worry about it." _I'll bring along the first volume for you too. Perv. _Shino's forehead when pink, a sight that got Hinata and Kiba to stare, and Kurenai to glance at the ceiling-mounted genin with a curious expression.

Shino walked off with his team, not looking at Naruto. _You're one to talk._ By now, the five remaining students were looking up at their idle classmate. Again Sasuke looked away, radiating his foul mood, and in the process drawing the pink-haired girl's attentions back to him. The other three didn't get to question before their sensei came in to take them away.

The next time Naruto looked at the clock, he realized their sensei was an hour late, and a slow smile spread over his face. He slapped his book shut and tucked it away, walking across the ceiling to his new teammates. "Hey, you two down there, our sensei won't be here for another hour and a half or so… I'm pretty sure about that. Anyway, I'll be back in a bit. Don't do anything I would." He strode away from them, totally ignoring the pink-haired girl's cries for him to stick around and wait like the rest of them.

Sasuke gave a dull snort. "Dobe, it'll serve him right when sensei gets here before he's back." Sakura blinked at him in slight confusion, and gave an uneasy nod, of course, Sasuke was always right.

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Naruto, of course, was not privilege to the knowledge that Uchiha Sasuke was infallible. In Naruto's mind, Uchiha Sasuke was an arrogant, overconfident little upstart, overwhelmed with thoughts of his own genetic superiority. Not at all like Naruto, who was arrogant and utterly overwhelmed with thoughts of his own superiority thanks to a certain demonic fox.

He quickly halted that thought, the implications were quite unsettling to the blonde. Besides, he was stronger than the Uchiha.

So the question became, what could he do until Kakashi sensei arrived at the classroom? He couldn't train himself to exhaustion… That would take too long and they might be doing things today that would take energy. His stomach growled noisily and he thought where might he go for food…

As he hopped along the rooftops a delicious, steamy scent wafted to him and pulled him off his planned course. He hadn't really meant to follow this new scent but before he knew it he found himself glued to the forward display of a steam box. The three layered racks on the interior holding freshly steamed pork and vegetable buns.

The store attendant regarded Naruto with fear initially, and then with a look of open disgust when she realized who it was. This didn't go unnoticed by the new genin, who turned to her with a broad, disarming grin, but the grin didn't faze her, at least until she noticed they were alone in the store. Then she got afraid.

This too, was noticed, and Naruto got close, in her face, eyes opened and blood red. His voice was as manic as his grin. "I'm not asking much, I don't want your friendship, or your pity. I don't want to hurt anyone but the enemies of the village you know?" his voice was as sweet as castor oil "Just sell to me at normal price when no one's around to see… or I might accidentally step on your shop when I let my human illusion fall away and decide to smite your silly little village…" The woman shook with terror, retreating all the while he spoke to her, but he advanced with her, not giving her more than an inch of breathing space.

Finally she broke down and Naruto backed off quickly. "H-how many..?" her voice was very small just then, and the feeling it gave the lad was exquisite, he let out his approval in the form of his unique, killing joy. This nauseated the woman further but she steeled herself and waited for his answer.

"Hmm… Five. Nah, make that eight of 'em." He grinned at her stunned look and reached for a back pocket, making her face drain of color. She thought that he was reaching for a weapon, that the demon would kill her, but the wallet came into view and she hurriedly packed away the items into a wax paper bag and pushed it forwards to him, waving her hands quickly.

"N-no charge! Please just leave!" He frowned at this and tucked his wallet away, took his food and bolted from the store, removing one of the buns and tearing into it. Ahhh, the flavor was exquisite, subtle and potent at the same time, the texture a thing to be dreamed of… So much better than that ramen hullabaloo he had been subsisting on.

So where to next now that food wasn't an issue? To see Iruka-otousan, perhaps? No, more accurately, to see if Kakashi-sensei was visiting his friend. Naruto told himself very firmly that he was not going to visit Iruka-otousan. He wasn't damnit.

But… he was at the memorial… alone. No one was there but Naruto, Kakashi hadn't been there when he'd arrived and this prompted a frown from the blonde. He looked around, there wasn't anyone else there…

"Sorry to show up and run again Iruka-otousan… But I need to see if sensei's with the team already, hey try one of these in the meantime!" He placed one of the five remaining steamed buns on the base of the monument and bolted, calling on the tremendous charge of Kyuubi's chakra to get him moving fast enough.

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Drawing close to the school again he sensed his sensei's chakra on the rooftop already and cursed inwardly. In a few more minutes he was on the rooftop as well, looking at his two teammates and his sensei. The former giving him dirty looks and the latter looking… slightly proud?

"Nice of you to join us, Naruto, do you have an excuse for being so late?"

Naruto stumbled a bit at this, but didn't let it show. Instead he gave a wide smile and a nauseating wave of killing joy. "Well… There was this old lady who was being menaced by a fox in the forest…"

Sakura slammed her fist into Naruto's blonde spikes with a cry of 'LIAR!'. Sasuke, being unusually expressive, gave a smirk and a snort.

"Well, I guess we can't hold you accountable for that then can we?" Kakashi gave his eye-smile again as the two other genin candidates stared blankly at him. "Anyway, lets get to know each other a bit if we're going to be a team! Go on, introduce yourselves,"

Sakura piped up, having recovered from smiting her blonde teammate. "What kind of stuff should we talk about, sensei?"

Kakashi gave a dismissive shrug. "General stuff, you know, name, likes and dislikes, dreams for the future, hobbies, that sort of thing" but Sakura wouldn't shut up.

"Why don't you show us how you mean?"

The jounin sighed heavily. "My name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no desire to tell you about my likes and dislikes. My dreams for the future? Hmm…. I have lot's of hobbies," Sakura and Sasuke stared blankly at him again, Naruto was laughing at their misfortune. "Now you, loud girl."

Sakura grimaced at him but nodded anyway. "Uhm… My name is Haruno Sakura, what I like is…" she glanced at Sasuke and blushed, "my dream for the future is…" again "my hobby is…" she glanced at Sasuke, squealed and turned red as a tomato.

Inner Sasuke was scared.

"What I hate is Ino-pig and people who think they're better than Sasuke-kun!" she finished with a venomous glare at the blonde. Who was once more sitting on the overhang.

Kakashi nodded dumbly, 'C_rap. Shallow little thing isn't she?' _"Next you, duck-ass," Sasuke winced at the label, but what was he supposed to do, this was his hairstyle, he wouldn't be Sasuke without it!

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I don't like many things, and I hate weakness. I don't have many hobbies but I guess you could say training" _well… I also like interpretive dance and cooking…_ "I don't have a dream per se, more like an ambition. To kill a certain man and bring the Uchiha clan back to its former power."

_Avenger. Expected._ Kakashi looked up at his monkey of a student sitting on the ceiling. "And you, Naruto," Naruto hopped down and landed on his feet between his two teammates.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, but people call me Dobe, Demon, Monster, and a host of other things. I don't much care what you call me." His grin and saccharine sweet tone never faltered while he spoke. "What I like is killing, torturing my Sinner, power, and training with Kakashi-sensei." Sasuke rolled his eyes, thinking the other guy was a kiss-ass, though the rest of his statement was fairly odd. "What I dislike… Hmm. Weak people, whom I believe are universally worthless, people who incorrectly believe themselves my betters, and belief systems with values that don't take power into consideration." Sakura stared at him like one would a repugnant alien life-form. "My dream for the future… I don't really have one, other than to be stronger, and stronger even than that. My hobbies are torturing the nine-tailed demon fox-" Kakashi's eye went wide at that, but it was technically Naruto's secret, he couldn't stop him. "And training my body to take in more of its chakra. What I hate most of all is the fact that except for Kakashi-sensei everyone tried to make the Kyuubi take me over."

By now Naruto's teammates were quite certain he was insane. In a bad way. Sakura raised her hand timidly. "Wh-wha-what do you mean about the Kyuubi?"

Naruto looked at her and then to their sensei. Kakashi sighed heavily before explaining. "It was supposed to be a secret… But when the Yondaime couldn't defeat the Kyuubi outright, he decided that the only thing he could do was seal it at the cost of his own life. He sealed it into Naruto. Apparently Naruto was about to crack because the villagers can't see a difference between Naruto and the demon fox, and it tried to take him over. It failed, and Naruto punished the demon for trying to take him over, he seemed to take some perverse pleasure in hurting the fox. Thus Naruto found a purpose in life, hurting the beast, and so has become just a little… unstable." This earned a snort from Naruto. "Okay a lot unstable."

Sasuke looked at the jinchuuriki suddenly with new eyes, and an unfamiliar feeling. Compassion? Sakura, on the other hand, felt fear in such ways she stunk of it.

"Now neither of you are allowed to talk about it on pain of death, unless the third's law is lifted. And on that happy note, you all need to show up at training field twenty seven at six in the morning tomorrow. Oh, yeah, it'll be your real test before graduating to genin, and don't eat or you'll throw up, got it? Good. Then I'll see you all tomorrow." He disappeared in his jounin poofy way.

Naruto stood up, one of his books suddenly in hand, and his classmates recognized it suddenly as the book Kakashi was reading. He flashed a disarming grin and wave of killing joy at her, "Don't worry Sakura, I wouldn't waste my time hurting either one of you, there wouldn't be a purpose to it."

He began to hop away after that and Sasuke had a rather fierce, if somewhat brief internal struggle, before deciding to ignore the faint stir of compassion, and brooded, reflecting on it as he walked away. Sakura followed after Sasuke timidly, and for her quietly. Sasuke was too wrapped up in his brooding to notice Sakura, if he had, he would've been too thankful for her silence to tell her off.

Of course Sakura could never be silent for long while in the presence of Sasuke. For any reason. In point of fact it is a fairly well established theorem that a creepy-stalker-fangirl while dead, unconscious, or being full-on kissed by the object of their affections until both are nigh suffocated, would spontaneously begin either professing their love or asking for dates. Needless to say, creepy-stalker-fangirls were rarely invited to attend funerals, and their obsessions rarely attended theirs.

In this particular case, Sakura had to open her mouth, but it was for a different reason than either had expected. "Sasuke-kun, what do you think of Naruto?"

Sasuke paused in his brooding to consider the question, he did however continue to walk. Seeing this, Sakura expected him to ignore the question entirely, of course, such a thing as obvious disinterest can never thwart the adoration of a fangirl. So while she continued to follow him, she was surprised when he gave her an answer. "He reminds me of… someone I knew."

_He's talking to me? WOOO! TAKE THAT INO-PIG!_ Inner Sakura, being the voice of reason, interceded in the pink-haired girl's celebrations. _He only answered a question that is actually pertinent to his future development._ Sakura took a moment to decipher her inner self's statement before commanding her to shut up. She was caught up just enough in her inner dialogue to not question 'her Sasuke-kun' anymore about the person he knew.

---------------------------

For his part, Naruto ambled along the rooftops, hopping and skipping, savoring his last pork and vegetable steamed bun, relishing the flavor and every divine-textured bite. As one might expect when expressing such enjoyment of food, it didn't last long, and the bun, along the bag it had been in, were soon gone. The blonde mourned their passing for all of a minute before withdrawing his newest Icha Icha, already more than halfway through the orange tome.

He slipped into his home through a window, as usual, and retrieved his old, worn out, Icha Icha Paradise Volume 1, secreting the novel about himself with his implausible (1) skills of ninja stealth. With that finished, he bolted out the door again, as usual, forgetting that the key was on the other side of the locked door.

Not that Naruto cared for such things as keys and locks. He was, after all, a master of removing things that stood in his way, like doors and flimsy wooden barriers (read: Naruto, despite being loopy as all get out, needed to relieve stress in the form of breaking things. Preferably things that belonged to other people).

Why precisely he came home to acquire the book, he had forgotten, but he deemed it unimportant anyway as he set off to find his friend. Finding a person might be easier when one had their eyes focused on the world around them instead of buried in perverted orange books, but Naruto didn't much care. His friend would probably be looking for him too, and the orange book would shine like a beacon to the bug user, if his blush had been any indication.

Well… This seemed like a good spot to sit and wait, so Naruto sprawled himself out on the side of the hospital, once more raising the book to his eyes. His giggling awoke a sleeping patient inside, actually. A feeble old man who looked about in confusion, having woken in a strange room with the lingering effects of post-op anesthesia, he turned to the source of the waking and saw a pair of legs on the window. The old man blinked in vacant confusion for a long minute, before smiling.

_What a nice young lady, waking me up for my daily run._ The man attempted to get out of bed to go for his 'daily run', not recalling that the doctors had had to fix his hip from the last time he tried to run, or that he hadn't had a 'daily run' in over twenty years. However, the effort of moving seemed enough to tire his aching body back into sleep, and so sleep he did, with precious little thought devoted to running anytime soon.

Totally unaware of the old man's near accident, Naruto held his precious Icha volume 1 out into mid-air after a few minutes of reading. It had barely hung in space for a second before a pale hand reached out to grab the book, and stole it away from him. The perpetually obscured boy, Aburame Shino, sat down beside his friend and flipped the book he was reading open to the first page.

Uzumaki Naruto grunted at him. _Perv._

Shino shifted uncomfortably while he began to blush. _So?_ The reaction prompted a laugh from Naruto, which in turn was granted a very small, very hidden smile behind the massive collar of the bug user.

"How's your team?" _I heard the Inuzuka was on your team. Major suckage._

Shino paused a moment, considering his team. _Major suckage._ His body language affirmed. "The Hyuuga girl, she has a crush on you." There was silence for a moment. Shino would've rolled his eyes if it wouldn't have been too expressive. "Yes, she is strong."

_I like her already._ Was what the grin Naruto wore said. With his one friend, Naruto made no secret of his perversion, in point of fact, Naruto had no secrets of any kind. "She know about the Sinner?" Shino of course, knew about the Sinner already. It had occurred once when a kikai bug had exploded after attempting to feed on Naruto's chakra. He'd needed to explain himself to his friend, after all.

Shino turned a page, and rolled his shoulders back, both in noisy fashion. _No, I do not think so._ "How is your team?" the spikier headed one asked.

Naruto gave a great, heaving sigh. _Weak._ "Sakura punched me in the head for being late. I didn't kill her for it."

The Aburame sighed. _You think everyone but your friends are weak._ "Good for you." _Why are you so late lately?_

Naruto glanced over at his friend, book pulled down over his nose and mouth. _Kakashi_.

Lowering his book, Shino glanced to the blonde once more. Both returned to their books at the same time. _I'll never understand you. _They said at once. Both let out small chuckles, eerily synchronized with one another.

"Let's walk while we read," _you should set me up to train with the hot/strong chick. _Shino sighed at his friend's hentai mind, but got up and walked along with him, descending the hospital exterior at a leisurely pace.

End Chapter 2 At Any Cost

Mmmm… what's to note? Oh right.

1: Yes, I meant the word implausible, seriously, while I can understand canon-Naruto being stealthy, AAC-Naruto doesn't believe in stealth.

Please review, such would make me stronger, make me get off my duff and write bloody thirteenth chapter of ADD… Hm. Lot's of acronyms here.

Aidis: ADD… HAH!

Islagatt: Yes. Is there a problem with that?


	4. Chapter 3

At Any Cost

Chapter Three:

Chicks don't dig dangerous guys. Well, most of them don't.

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Haruno Sakura twitched in uncertain emotions once more, though a rosy pink stained her cheeks again. She considered telling the giggling individual to shut his infernal yap, but she was definitely afraid that he would devour her soul. This was a valid concern when the giggler in question was the host for a demon older than time and indulged in its power at most opportunities.

Besides it was nice having someone who made noises occasionally.

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Sasuke had arrived right on time, at six a.m. sharp, and Sakura had already been there for ten minutes, desperate to prove that she was a good and practical kunoichi. They had waited for an hour and a half before Kakashi arrived, followed only moments later by Naruto. When they were accused of being late, Naruto quickly made his own excuse, the process echoed by Kakashi, the former having been harassed by a vengeful ghost while the latter was blocked by a black cat that wouldn't let him pass. Naruto received a solid punch to the head that he grinned in answer to, sending Sakura hiding behind Sasuke with a terror-stricken face.

Sakura, Naruto had decided, was not over the idea that he had the Kyuubi sealed in him. This was of course ridiculous to Naruto who knew his own condition, the fox's condition, and the status of his teammates more or less, and had decided that there would be absolutely no point in harming them. But it wasn't really important to him whether she was afraid of him or not, so long as she didn't prove to make killing the enemy without losing teammates too challenging, he'd be alright.

It was about then that Kakashi decided to introduce them all to the test. He called them all towards himself and they quickly set out to obey, Naruto taking up station to Sasuke's right, Sakura on the aforementioned Uchiha's left side, and the brown-eyed duck-ass himself standing directly in front of the jounin.

"Now kids, its time for today's exercise. Today we're doing survival training-"

"But we did plenty of training during our time in the academy!" Sakura's outburst once again interrupted their new sensei. Kakashi took a deep calming breath before he answered the girl.

"Not like this you haven't. Your objective for this exercise is to steal one of these two bells from me." He held up a pair of unassuming bells, and then tied them into his belt. "Whoever gets a bell gets lunch, and can become a genin," again he was interrupted.

"WHAT! Then what was the point of the genin test?" Sakura asked once again.

This time Naruto answered her. "That was a test to show we had the skill to match beginning genin. Teachers give their students a second test to see if they are really ninja material, or if they need to be retrained in different fields." He paused letting out a sick laugh. "Statistically, only a third of the graduating students actually become genin!"

This revelation shocked Sakura into a mind-blanked silence, for which Kakashi was internally grateful. "Correct Naruto, whoever gets a bell can go on to become a genin, you have until noon to get one. You'll have to come at me with intent to kill though, otherwise you won't stand a chance. And don't worry that I might get injured, its lovely sentiment but you'd be overestimating yourself. Ready everyone? And… GO!"

Two of the genin bolted away instantly, hiding in the forest. Naruto wandered around his sensei and strolled into the training field proper, staring into the sky. Kakashi watched the blonde walk and raised his one visible eyebrow at him, he was trying to figure out why his student wasn't behaving as a proper ninja, like Kakashi had taught him. As the jounin drew out his copy of Icha Icha Paradise, he distinctly thought he heard a faint muttering.

Indeed, Naruto was quietly muttering to himself, considering things that he knew were truisms, and what he didn't know for fact. The process was expedited when a shadow clone manifested before him and the two began to actually talk, debating the subject to come to a more logical conclusion.

"Uzumaki Naruto is the strongest in the class yes?" The clone nodded, this was true, second strongest was Shino, followed distantly by Sasuke. "But Sensei is important, he can beat us easily, yes?" again another nod, "Even if there were three of Naruto, there wouldn't be a thing he could do about sensei, sensei would unleash god-awful smackdown on Naruto. Therefore, sensei does not expect us to win a straight-up fight…" The clone was nodding almost constantly and now picked up where his creator began to trail off.

"If we can't win a straight up fight then there is some other way we're supposed to beat him,"

"If two thirds fail then why will two succeed?" the original questioned.

"Unless no one passes if two succeed!" the pair concluded at the same time. The clone exploded into smoke and Naruto used the cover to bolt away into the trees, searching for his teammates.

Kakashi gave a small smirk under his mask, thinking to himself _perhaps I trained him a bit too well in seeing beneath the underneath._

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Sasuke regarded the blonde as if he were offering homeowner's insurance to a turtle. No, that made slight sense, as if he were offering a summoning contract for slugs, come on, how could anyone want to summon slugs, that was just nasty.

Somewhere in fire country, a blonde woman sneezed and forced another loss to blow over into a solid win, netting her back all of her losses in a single blow.

The blonde had described an impossibly unlikely, although altogether fitting concept of how the genin test was actually structured under Kakashi. The only thing Naruto couldn't answer was why Kakashi would make such a deliberately obtuse test, for once in his life Naruto had no idea, and he admitted such to a derisive look from Sasuke. The look prompted the Uzumaki to quickly take stock of some thoughts he had, such as, was it really such a bad thing if he beat the crap out of Sasuke, probably killed him? Well… it would be frowned upon by Kakashi, so maybe that wasn't good, definitely ojiisan wouldn't like it so he decided not to. Although the thought was tempting and he had to fight it with all his willpower.

Totally oblivious to his very near demise, Sasuke had given Naruto a confident smirk and told him not to worry about the test after that, charging off on his own to fight Kakashi head on. Or as head on as a rookie in the art of assassination can manage… meaning that Sasuke began by launching a flurry of shuriken from an impossible angle.

The flying four-pointed stars arced around a tree and sharply turned in towards the grey headed jounin, all three sank into the flesh and drew minute spurts of blood while they continued forward with their momentum. In a flash of smoke the man was suddenly not there, a log having received the three stars in his place.

Rapidly spouting language that was definitely not fitting of an heir to a prestigious clan and sending the blonde scattering away (Naruto had the presence of mind to not get caught by their sensei without the whole team), Sasuke launched himself forward, eyes scanning through the trees for the man in question, they locked onto a blur of dark and green with a silvery top, and a kunai flew off in the direction indicated by its presence.

Sasuke didn't even have time to understand that it was a bunshin before he felt the approach of the jounin behind him, making the genin candidate spin on the spot to face him and block a low kick with his forearm.

Sasuke pushed against the stronger nin's leg, leveraging more strength into his own kick as the inverted snap kick shot towards the jounin's skull, only to be intercepted easily by Kakashi's elbow. The other leg shot out, angling from Sasuke's current position to hit the jounin in the chin, but that foot too was caught easily by the jounin. Sasuke smirked, triumphantly as his hand shot towards the two bells. Kakashi realized what would've been a moment too late, but his combat-honed skills allowed him to bring up his leg faster, and nail the genin squarely in the gut, sending him flying well away, winded by the hit.

Undeterred, the genin candidate drew in a shuddering breath while his hands flashed through familiar seals. He flipped in the air, landing on his feet facing away, he shifted, sensing Kakashi already moving forward, and brought his right hand to his lips, an internal chant of _Katon: Goukyakuu no jutsu_ and a solid blast of chakra-charged air from his lungs blasted flames towards the approaching ninja. Under the expert guidance of Sasuke's high-level control, the fireball expanded and consumed the oxygen in a three meter diameter sphere beginning where Kakashi had stood only moments ago.

The jutsu carried on for moments longer, 'til Sasuke was almost certain the jounin would've been fried. He dropped his hand and took a deep breath again, refilling his lungs with the smoke and cinders, and just a pinch of fresh air that rushed in to the fill the void burned out by his technique. In the crater of his attack there was nothing left, no trace of Kakashi or a burnt log or anything, frantically the genin began to look around, unsure where the jounin might've got to, but his concerns were gracelessly ended when the ground beneath him pulled him into it, much against his strangled cries of protest. When it ended he was merely a head above the earth, while his sensei leaned down over him, his eye curved into a bizarrely happy expression.

"Ninjutsu, always know the proper technique for the situation. Like Doton: Shinjuu Zanshin," that said, the jounin meandered away to find his wayward pink-haired student. She had a genjutsu lesson coming up.

_Itachi didn't have to put up with this shit._ Was Sasuke's only thought.

--------------------------------

While Kakashi was pursuing a kage bunshin under henge, Naruto with a very scared-looking Sakura in tow trudged onto the scene and stood in front of Sasuke. He glared down at him with a sickening grin and painful anticipation shining in his eyes. Sasuke glared back, doing his damnedest to ignore the practically dripping killing joy from Naruto.

"Sasuke, you're ruining my chance at being a genin!" He stated in a whiny voice. "If you keep being so stupid, I'll forget that I'm supposed to work with you and start enjoying myself, you remember my hobbies right?" He continued in his vilely childish voice, but as he did he adopted a steadily increasing pressure as his chakra built up around and in him. He noticed Sasuke try to conceal a nervous tic, and a faint swallow. The scattered drops of sweat on his forehead were the last bit towards convincing Naruto that he had gotten Sasuke really frightened, likely for the first time since his brother slaughtered his clan. "Now Sakura, dig the little man out and we can tackle sensei head-on, we won't be able to beat him, but attacking him together is the only thing that matters." The pink haired girl nodded quickly and bolted to obey, moving faster than normal and digging with her kunai to loosen the dirt around Sasuke enough.

After less than a minute of digging Sasuke was out, brushing the remaining dirt from himself so that he didn't have to look at Naruto. The blonde beamed, quite content that his teammates understood the situation, he was in charge because he was stronger, simple as that. "Now if you're both ready, I'll call Kakashi sensei to us and try to beat him down with Taijutsu, Sasuke uses what techniques he knows to attack him while I'm keeping him down. Sakura, you see if you can't hem him in with some throwing weapons or something. Traps if you can, and don't either of you worry about hitting me in any of your attacks, if it gets Kakashi in the process that's all that matters." He ordered them about with an absolutely resolute voice, and they didn't dispute the matter any. He'd probably kill them if they did, and neither was ready to face that distinctly real and frightening possibility.

The Naruto-clone disguised as Sakura exploded into chakra-laden smoke, surprising Kakashi mildly, before he heard a cry of pain that sounded like Sasuke and felt a subtle spike of demonic chakra. _No, it couldn't be Naruto doing something to them, I have to see…_ He raced back towards the clearing with all of his jounin speed, finding a broken, bleeding Sasuke on the ground and a red-glowing Naruto. "Naruto… You… " He didn't get to finish whatever statement he might've made before the blonde launched himself forward, moving faster (if only a bit) than he had two days previous.

Kakashi backpedaled, suddenly put on the defensive by Naruto's unanticipated attack. He deflected a sloppy punch and shoved the arm aside, spinning the chakra-levitated genin like a top. As before, he hadn't completely anticipated Naruto and was sent flying by a flailing tendril of red chakra that clocked him solidly in the face, before he could even right himself in the air, Kakashi caught sight of Sasuke once again flipping through seals before shooting out a searing blast of orange and red flames.

The fire caught a suddenly surprised Naruto, while Sakura launched what must have been the majority of her kunai, shuriken, and explosive tags in a wild, undirected volley at her sensei's sudden appearance. Before Kakashi could react to the barrage, the fast step's technique already launching chakra into his feet on instinct, was intercepted when a burning blob of debatable humanity hurled itself at him and landed a punch into his thigh, a pulse of blood-red chakra disrupting the jutsu's execution, and holding Kakashi firmly in place when the massed explosives went off, scattering turf and wood and metal with equal disregard.

When the smoke cleared, a charred and tattered Kakashi stood facing a torn-apart Naruto. Kakashi wore armor in the form of his flak vest, his hand guards and other secreted about pieces of more durable material. Thus while Kakashi was in bad shape, it didn't much compare to Naruto, who was literally torn apart by the blast, one leg was missing from about half of the thigh down, there was a gaping hole in his abdomen and half the flesh of his face was torn away, not to mention that his orange jumpsuit was ripped half off of his upper body, and the arm that was uncovered was bent at an unhealthy angle more commonly associated with pretzels. Sakura gasped and stared, horrified at herself for having done it, and secretly relieved that the scary boy was dead, though she would never admit the latter to herself.

However, this assumption was immediately disproved, as the blonde remained standing, making a gurgling, laughing sound while blood foamed and ran down the fleshless side of his face, which wasn't really so fleshless anymore, already there was a thin covering of cellulose, cartilage and tendon reforming with blood vessels and muscle.

His voice came out raw, distorted, like how jell-o moves, only in sound. "Hehe… ehehehe… Th-the adrenaline and… and the endorphins, wow… ERherk… if I had both my kidneys I'd probably move faster than ever right now," the hole that had been his side was quickly reforming, leaving tan skin over powerful but graceless muscles. He kept on laughing in that disturbed, gurgling way, while his leg re-grew, and sickening pops and stretching sounds came from his badly mauled arm.

The laughter grew louder and then became hollow, gasping as he finished returning to his previous state. Well, close to it at least. His eyes had a vacant look in them while he salivated uncontrollably from the clean side of his face, blood still dripped from the other side, and his pupils were intensely dilated, as if he was still hungry for any kind of sensory input, and perhaps he was, Naruto was clearly a… something… junkie.

Kakashi winced uncomfortably and watched as the other two genin of his cell came forth from their ambush positions, as if drawn out by Naruto's sudden impressive regeneration. Sakura was shaking visibly while Sasuke was slightly paler than normal, Kakashi himself felt sick at the display, but was damned if he'd show it. A gentle chiming caught their attention, the blonde snapping out of his daze with a visible shudder of irrepressible pleasure. Brought thusly back, Naruto looked to Sakura who froze immediately having the object of her fears looking at her after she just pretty much killed him, surely she thought that she would die now, in a violent and gory display, Sasuke and Kakashi couldn't find a reason why Naruto wouldn't do such a thing.

However, Naruto was deciding exactly what to do, the high after regenerating that much of his body was impossible to describe, and the workout in general had been fantastic, he was in fact feeling better than he could even conceive of.

After a moment of intense, awkward silence, he came to a decision and stepped towards the pink haired kunoichi, Kakashi preparing to halt his apprentice from the slaughter in spite of his own exhaustion, while Sakura prepared, in her own way, to die.

_Sasuke-kun, please remember me… I really did l-mmmpf!_ Her train of thought was suddenly interrupted by the Uzumaki boy who had calmly wrapped his hand around the back of her head, turned her face towards his and found her lips, taking her into his best approximation of a 'kiss', something he knew the concept of from Kakashi's books, it seemed appropriate for the situation. Kakashi froze in place, watching the moment stretch on as Sakura's initial protests subsided into muted sounds that he was fairly certain Jiraiya had written about. Sasuke on the other hand had no fucking clue.

Seriously, Sasuke did not understand what the devil was going on, asshole, arrogant bastard, and overall prick though he may have been, he was remarkably innocent. After a long moment it clicked in his mind, and he flew backwards with a deep blush and a nosebleed much like a typical male reaction to the oroike no jutsu. He managed to focus on the pair once again when Naruto pulled back from the confused girl, and walked away from her slowly. He leaned against one of the training logs, slid down it and fell asleep, his body reminding him that he had just regenerated a goodly portion of body mass from being blown up.

Sakura however, remained standing with her mouth hanging open and her eyes shut, a deep blush making her face an hair match while she swayed with the breeze. A little while later she let her eyes flutter open and her mouth changed to a dim smile, her eyes weren't quite focusing on anything just then. Kakashi turned a concerned, lecherous eye towards her.

"Sakura? Are you alright?" For his trouble, Kakashi received an 'mmm' which might've meant yes and might've meant yum, perhaps both. He paused for a long moment, struggling to find the right thing to say, or at least to find something that mattered to say. "Well… ah, alright then. Sasuke, when they come around would you tell them that you all pass? The purpose of this exercise was teamwork, a shinobi who fails their mission is trash but- Hey, Sasuke? Saaaaassukeeee…" Sasuke too, was unconscious, this was… troublesome. Very unyouthful. Well… there was always an alternative.

Moments later, Kakashi hopped away to find sanctuary to read until he was sufficiently late for the jounin meeting.

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Kurenai glared harshly at the tardy jounin as he stepped up on her left, Asuma standing on her other side as they stood before the hokage, a number of other jounin instructors flanking them, and the academy teachers standing behind (along with a few interested ninja or other officials). Sarutobi, the old man, cleared his throat and drew Kurenai's attention back to him.

Upon noticing that his eyes landed on her for a brief moment, she had the grace to look apologetic.

"Now that everyone is here… time for this years jounin instructors to tell us about their new students." The old man had a brief, formal urge to glare at Kakashi, but repressed it, knowing it'd do no good and only encourage Kurenai. He ran down the team lists, each instructor in turn reporting failures of their teams, he looked up to Asuma upon deciding that he would screw with the order.

Asuma stepped forward, shoulders rigid with unusual formality, even the cigarette hanging from his lips was unlit. "Team eight, Akimichi Chouji, Nara Shikamaru, and Yamanaka Ino, pass," his voice held a bit of easy pride, as if it were expected, but still something to be proud of. He stepped back into the line, this time Kurenai stepped forward.

She cleared her throat. "Team ten, Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba, pass," she seemed quite proud of her own team, for unknowable reasons, and stepped back into the line, there was a momentary pause before she nudged Kakashi to get up and give his team report.

Almost everyone expected the team to fail, Uchiha or no, after all this was the copy ninja, who had never had students, and one of them _was_ the Kyuubi after all. "Team seven, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto, in need of real and serious counseling and probably medical attention, but pass nonetheless." There was a round of slow blinks before people came to grips with what was just said.

Kakashi accepted a genin team.

Across Konoha, Gai looked through his wardrobe, and laid out his best black fatigues for tomorrow, after all, one could only handle so much green spandex.(1)

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It was dark when Naruto woke up, and much to his dismay he discovered that he couldn't see and something was sitting on his face. He tried to brush it away but it nicked his finger, drawing an angry growl from him before he swiped at it and pulled the note from his face. His pupils dilated once more as he adjusted to the lack of light.

What he held was a simple post-it note reading 'pass, meet again at eight tomorrow. Really.'

_Ah._ Thought Naruto. _Well that's good to know. _He went back to sleep, and entertained notions of sexy women able to keep pace with him in a fight, Naruto slept with a tremendous grin on his face.

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End Chapter 3 At Any Cost

Author Note: Hmm… I meant this chapter to go more… but I like it ending here. Am I approaching things too episodically? Review, please, or the bees will explode in my head. Quiet, it's late, and I'm tired.

(1): For those who didn't get it, I view the day Gai refuses to wear spandex as the day the world ends. It's like a unified political party in a democracy, its impossible.


	5. Chapter 4

Author Note: It's happened. It's finally happened. I have run out of things to read on at least in Naruto, and I know if I go indulge my mecha-lust then I'll get sidetracked. I won't do that to my smallish collection of readers, so I'm just going to throw myself into writing. On another note, forgive the tardiness of my work, I have a class that I actually need to study for, this is the first time that's ever happened to me and it's getting me slightly stressed.

At Any Cost

Chapter 4

Some girls are tricksy and clever, others are just scary.

Do I own Naruto? That's up to Masashi Kishimoto and his lawyers, I think they'll say no.

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Uzumaki Naruto seems to be simple enough, psychotic, perverted, athletic, and undeniably strong with little to no skill. Of course, this presumes that to know this would be to know Naruto, of course that is inherently wrong, for it goes into no details about any of it really. Psychotic, what form of neurosis might this be interpreted as? Or what kink to his perversion must there be, which Icha Icha books does he read? Athletic might mean fast, or good stamina, it might refer to his body itself or even skills, though the subsequent statement makes us doubt that, because he is strong (strong how? In mind or body or heart?), despite his lack of skill. A lack of skill might mean overall or might mean that he is overspecialized.

So we see, Uzumaki Naruto is not so simple as he seems. At the same time he isn't as complex as one might think either, just by looking at him and observing him for a day one might get to know him. Failing that one could go back a chapter or two and read his team seven introduction, that would be a fairly good synopsis of Uzumaki Naruto.

However there is a person who wonders about Naruto who can't simply go back two chapters and reread his introduction to know that that's all he is really, this person's problem is she's stuck in the story with the genin in question (Author's Note: I could think of worse fates than being stuck in my story…). The exacerbation of the issue came from her recent and intimate contact with the same blonde genin jinchuuriki. Well, perhaps intimate contact was overstating the issue, after all it was only a kiss, right?

_"A mind-boggling, romantic, make-the-world-stop first kiss of love and devotion!"_ Supplied the troubled ninja's inner thoughts. Thanks to the stressful concept of ninja work, Sakura had developed a dissociative disorder, attributing her problems and 'darker' thoughts to a second personality dubbed 'Inner Sakura'. Presently Sakura was upset that her inner self was so caught up with that kiss, yeah it'd been her first, yeah she had blacked out for three hours thereafter, and okay, just maybe Naruto looked handsome as all get out when he was covered in blood and soot. But that was no reason to lose devotion to Sasuke, right?

As she considered this the group were gathered at training ground twenty seven, Sakura as close to Sasuke as she could get without him pushing her away, the two had arrived almost simultaneously, both precisely at eight a.m. However, both were stunned when they found Kakashi and Naruto both sitting around reading their perverse novels, if the empty bag were any indication, Naruto had been there for some time, probably having arrived with their sensei.

This was… unsettling to Sasuke, who was struggling with the idea that anyone his age, even a demon carrier, was stronger than him. That and the fact that Naruto had kissed one of _his_ fangirls. He may not like them, he may not ever appreciate their affections, but damnit they were his, and his alone. Uchiha were noted and well-established psychotics, by and large.

Naruto had come to that realization upon noticing Sasuke's slight scent of jealousy whenever Sakura glanced at the blonde genin (a feat she managed none too often), after all, he had no single desire for or claim to the pathetic female nin, and he had made clear his absolute lack of interest in the girl likely for the same reason. Perhaps it was that kiss business? No, that would be silly, it was a kiss, a display of affection, desire or gratitude, in the particular case yesterday it had clearly been of the last, after all, he displayed no affection, he never felt physical desire (pain and the causation of it didn't count) and he was fairly certain that he'd never made it seem like he did.

Reading perverted books in public didn't count either.

So what was up with Sasuke sending out waves of jealousy? Or worse, what was up with Sakura continuously looking at him when he'd giggle at his perverted reading material? Well… it didn't matter, for the moment he was enjoying Icha Icha Paradise volume seven for the second time. Kakashi beside him was in the sequel series Icha Icha Violence, volume two. It was nine thirty already on their first day as real genin.

Kakashi had really been there at eight o'clock, in fact he and Naruto had arrived at seven thirty, the latter also tearing into a bag of steamed pork and vegetable buns while reading his novel. However, being on time didn't really mean anything to Kakashi, he was, after all, himself, and timing wasn't the best of his attributes. Kakashi glanced up from his book suddenly at nine thirty and gave his eye-curve smile to his genin (apart from Naruto who'd been there the whole time), happily asking them. "Oh, hey guys, when did you get here?"

Sakura and Sasuke stared blankly at Kakashi for several minutes, apparently each trying to reconcile what had just happened. Sasuke's left eye began twitching while Sakura sorted out the tangled mass of _what-the-fuck_ into coherence. Apparently she was quite successful because she managed to mostly speak in an understandable fashion. "Kakashi-sensei… We got here at… Eight o'clock and…"

Kakashi blinked in surprise at them, not missing a beat while Naruto was having riotous fits of laughter in the back of his head. "You've been sitting here for an hour and a half and you didn't say anything while I was sitting out in the open? You two really ought to work on being more aware of your surroundings." He concluded his lesson with an eye-curve smile. Another minute passed in silence.

Sasuke screamed, a strangled half-animal, half-sobbing yowl of pain as he broke down under the… the… as he broke down. Sakura meanwhile hadn't blinked in a few minutes and her wrist was getting dangerously close to a sharp kunai.

Kakashi ignored them both and stood swiftly, his longer-term apprentice following. Naruto, deciding he needed them until he was a chuunin, snatched away the kunai from a whimpering Sakura and knocked the duck-ass out with a neat chop to the base of the neck. Hauling him over a shoulder like a sack of potatoes, Naruto followed Kakashi, and Sakura fell back on fangirl program number one. Stalk the crush.

Naruto felt a slight shiver go down his spine, Sasuke might've done the same if he'd been conscious.

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The Konoha missions administration and oversight office was a wide, spacious room, laid out with tables lining one wall and chairs behind. Genin and chuunin staffed the tables normally, sometimes jounin on probation, or under investigation were assigned. The hokage was always there as well, to provide last minute mission roster changes. Complementing all these things were the stacks upon stacks of mission scrolls. Mostly these were D and C-class scrolls, there were occasional B-rank missions scattered about for new chuunin teams, but higher rank missions were given in person as often as possible. It really wasn't that often that an experienced chuunin or even a new jounin would be given a mission lasting less than a week, so most were able to receive their orders and scrolls from the hokage himself. Failing that, he had adjutants whose specific, sole duty it was to distribute missions according to his plans.

By the time team seven reached the missions administration and oversight office, Sasuke had regained consciousness (thanks to a phial of smelling salts and an insult to his family) and had gotten over Kakashi's… his… he'd gotten over Kakashi. Sasuke frowned, well okay he was always frowning- he frowned _mentally_, that hadn't sounded like he'd meant it, damnit. _Itachi didn't have to put up with this shit._ The duck-ass glared at Naruto and then at Kakashi, determinedly forgetting the fact that Itachi was a jounin at his age. Such things didn't count, after all.

He fairly well ignored today's chuunin lobbing a pair of scrolls to Kakashi, and the according speech about missions and ranks. He noticed when there was an abrupt silence though and the hokage seemed to be glaring in an admonishing manner at Naruto. He groaned, what had the dobe done now?

"Would you repeat that please Naruto?" The hokage leaned forward a bit.

Naruto cleared his throat and spoke again, quite calm, if just bit eager. "I said, Sakura and duck-ass are making the team dynamic all weird and uncomfortable, so when can we go on some fun missions. You know, slaughter, assassinate, destroy, that kind of thing. Real ninja work." Kakashi gave a sigh and swatted Naruto upside the head.

"Do your missions well and I'll see if I can work anything out in the immediate future, until then you either keep yourself in check or I take away your books." Naruto looked up at Kakashi in horror, the books were sacred! How could he even consider taking them away? The look in his sensei's eyes told him he was serious, but even so, how could he possibly…? Naruto nodded and let his shoulders slump in a display of resignation, he really wanted to kill someone already.

Kakashi, content that Naruto would keep himself in check, turned to the pinkie and duck-ass, motioning for them to join him as they headed out along the streets. He noticed that Naruto was deep in his own train of thought, probably torturing the Kyuubi, and so he addressed the other two. "I'm sorry if it seems like I'm favoring Naruto, but it's a simple matter of I've known him longer. I'll do my best to be impartial when I get to actually training you three." Naruto was still distracted so Kakashi shrugged internally and opened up the first scroll, checking out their mission. It was simple enough and Kakashi led the way towards their first checkpoint of the day.

Conversely, Naruto was decidedly unaware of his surroundings, being deep and introspective did not come naturally to him, so it was with a great deal of effort that he currently was those things. He was set in his own particular musings, damnit he needed some sort of stress relief, back in the academy there wasn't any kind of awkwardness, just hang with Shino, then go and fight with Kakashi for a while, or his own clones. Simple enough and it always worked before.

But now he had a team, and the team had awkwardness, they did not mesh well, they all knew, and only one of them was really willing to work at it. Naruto knew that it wasn't him, and it sure as hell wasn't going to be Kakashi-sensei. Sasuke didn't seem the type to reach out and he hoped to hell Sakura wouldn't. Damnit, these people had to complicate things so fucking much!

He forced himself to release the irritation, and the stress that came with it, he knew he handled stress very badly, so he didn't let himself get stressed. Killing Mizuki showed him how much he liked to kill, though he long suspected it from his treatment of the nine-tails in his stomach, he had found that it relieved the majority of his stress at watching Iruka wounded and not doing well enough for him at the academy. Perhaps it wasn't the killing so much as it was the threat of being hurt by someone, and the reciprocation of proffered pain. Yes, a fight, a fight was what he wanted, it didn't have to end in a kill, that just made it more enjoyable to him, so what he wanted was a decent, bloody, violently explosive fight.

"Naruto, stop drooling, we're at the mission site." Naruto's head jerked up, incidentally drawing the glassy, vacant look over towards him and causing the drool trail from his lips (which had apparently formed of its own volition while Naruto's thoughts turned violent (Naruto cursed his independent salivary glands)) to be flung right into Sasuke's eye.

Being who he was, Sasuke ducked down before the whip of spit hit him, but he glared at Naruto all the same for forcing him to have a visible reaction. Naruto had the decency (actually surprising Sasuke) to look sheepish while he wiped away the trail from his face. His eyes lost their glassy quality as he looked about him at the site of their mission, privately wondering just what a forest had to do with D-rank missions. He looked to Kakashi to show that he was paying attention, which seemed to satisfy the jounin, for he began giving them their instructions.

"Okay then team seven, for our first mission we will be performing a task of the utmost important to the village's safety and well being." The genin seemed to perk up at this, their curiosity seemingly piqued. He reached into his ninja pouch and withdrew a book, he was about to speak when he was interrupted. This time not by Sakura.

"BLASPHEMER! The ninja pouch is the resting place for only the greatest of books, how can you cheat on Icha Icha, sensei!" Naruto seemed to be almost crying as he looked up at Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke were staring again.

"Hey hey, Naruto it's not what it looks like, you know I'd never treat the good books like that if I had any choice in the matter! But sometimes as a ninja you have to store a second book, and books don't fit in kunai holsters or jounin vests." He noticed that Naruto turned away and gave a derisive snort and sighed heavily. The boy had issues, not that they weren't well-founded, but the boy had issues nonetheless. "Seriously Naruto, it means nothing, it's a mission, you know, for the village. For the Hokage?" That made Naruto pause, and turn back, his expression grudging, but resigned. Kakashi nodded and made a mental note about not putting other books in his shuriken pouch ever again. He opened the other book and flipped through it 'til he found what he wanted, and then turned it so the others could see it. "This herb is one of the more commonly used in first aid kits and some medicines, its always in demand, and not really rare so we're going to spend a few hours gathering it. Now let's get going."

The day went like that for several hours, their first mission going somewhat slowly, and the second (to find the cat belonging to the daimyo's wife) not much better. At the end of the day though, the group had some spare cash, and Naruto's nerves were very nearly at their end, he was tapping into Kyuubi's chakra recklessly for the soothing emotions of rage and hate, all-consuming as they were they made for a pleasant foundation.

Sakura and Sasuke were the sources of his nervous edge and repressed anger. Sasuke was constantly glaring at him, as if blaming him for their sudden and sucky missions; in point of fact Sasuke was still having trouble dealing with the idea of Naruto being stronger than him, and furthermore having issue with being forced to do D-class missions. Sasuke's obvious resentment for Naruto because of this wasn't that bothersome on its own, no the real issue with it was that it was a mild distraction to keep from setting the Uchiha straight, and it exacerbated the other source of awkwardness.

Sakura was being Sakura, meaning she was pining away at Sasuke like a cat sharpening her claws. It struck fear into a part of Naruto that she kept glancing to him with confusion and a hint of attraction in her eyes, and every time she did it amplified the aura of awkwardness, because she would stop pining at Sasuke and get all introspective for a while. At first Sasuke ignored her, grateful for the silences, then he observed her and noticed that his fangirl was doting on some other male, something he couldn't tolerate. This would amplify Sasuke's irritation, thus Sakura's awkwardness, and thus Naruto's stress.

This is all a very roundabout way of saying that Naruto was stressed out when the group disbanded. Kakashi dismissed them and disappeared to… wherever he went, Sasuke had begun to walk away and Sakura had her eye on him initially, she looked back to ask Naruto if he was going to do anything- or perhaps to just look at him, she wasn't sure- but he was already gone when she did.

This is all also why Naruto was bolting through the forest with a dangerous amount of demonic chakra he felt an urgent need to release. As he jumped and ran through the foliage he was thusly surprised when his throat opened by a kunai's flight. In and of itself, this wasn't really an issue, the demon chakra in his body made the wound steam and sizzle for the scant seconds before and after it healed, but it drew his attention to the side where the attack had come from, and what he saw was… odd.

Standing on a branch not far from him was a female, a ninja obviously, she seemed familiar in a distant way. Her face was a mask of absolute shock, and grim satisfaction beneath that, there was a similar sensation of killing joy from her, he couldn't tell if it was a weak conviction or if she hid it very well. Deciding that this female probably was just of weak convictions, and that her satisfaction had been a hallucination, he strolled over to the kunai that had sliced his throat open and plucked it from its position in the tree.

He was turning back to face her when she was running up to him on his current branch, she spoke first in a faint, timid tone. "G-g-gomen! I'm so s-sorry… Naruto-kun, a-are you alr-right?" The object of the inquiry, and the accompanying close scrutiny (Hinata had rushed into his personal space and had her eyes little more than an inch from his unblemished neck), felt distinctly off around the female, she was exuding killing joy like an aura, this close to him, it resonated with something in him and he recognized her quite suddenly.

"Just fine, Hinata… chan. What're you doing out here?" Hyuuga Hinata, a girl on Shino's team, the one who had a thing for him. She was supposed to be strong, wasn't she? What was with the stutter? She backed away, a mortified blush on her cheeks when she realized how close she'd been to him, and the killing joy he sensed danced out of his detection again.

Hinata tucked the kunai (when had she taken it back from him?) into its holster on her thigh and gave a blushing smile while she looked down. "Uhm, I-I was j-j-just training… Naruto-kun…" He caught a flash of suppressed irritation from the corner of her lips.

_Something's up with this girl…_ Naruto was neither observant nor brilliant, but he recognized power, and he recognized himself. She was a lot like him, if he was right, but there was only one way to find out. "Training eh? Wanna' spar?"

Hinata looked up suddenly at him, as if surprised by the invitation, her demeanor suggesting it was shocking that someone would waste time to practice with her, or to Naruto, seeming like she had been hoping for it. She made a strangled squeaky sound and gave a vigorous nod, drawing a bloodthirsty grin from the blonde.

Naruto noticed she started backing up from him almost immediately, putting herself out of his weapon's range without having to disarm himself by throwing. A practiced motion that seemed less calculated than it was. "Please come at me with intent to kill, I'll just heal it over anyway so it doesn't matter. We'll start whenever you're ready." She gave him a nervous smile and nodded again, he returned the gesture, intent on seeing how good she was.

It seemed odd to Naruto, therefore, when she stepped into the standard academy taijutsu style, it was a flimsy but easy style to learn, as she launched herself forward with a punch from her farther hand. Stepping into his own style's stance, Naruto gracelessly took the punch and slammed his own fist forward. Without Kyuubi boosting his speed, Hinata brushed the fist away with a smooth block, and shifted her weight into a reverse spin kick that landed against his head, the bark of the tree branch gave a sickening tearing sound as his chakra tried to hold him upright.

Obviously Naruto failed to stay upright and staggered as he surged forward again towards the retreating Hinata, they both seemed to have the same thought. _(S)he's playing with me!_ Neither one had an ego that could accept that, and so Hinata brought her palms up, stance shifting as red began to sizzle in a shimmering heat around Naruto. The pair met with a furious clash, palm met gut, Naruto noticed his internal bleeding from the hit, knee met chest and threw the Hyuuga girl far away.

Both stumbled after the clash, Hinata latching onto a tree with a loud cough, and Naruto groaning while the blood vessels healed over again, blood forced out through pores in his abdomen. There was a momentary pause as the two regarded each other again, and the grin they shared made their eyes glint with wonderful madness.

As if it were choreographed, both leapt from their positions simultaneously, hurling themselves directly at the other. Naruto launched a chakra-laden right-hand punch towards the Hyuuga's face, she threw the punch high with a flare of blue chakra and her right forearm, the left jabbing forward with middle and index fingers together, ring pinky and thumb splayed out. Her attack impacted beneath his armpit, the tenketsu neutralized instantly by the hit, the remaining fingers lashed about, rending the internal organs with chakra blades. Naruto's eyes went wide, his grin more so as his left leg shot forward, shin impacting a taught stomach with little effect, Hinata's left hand withdrew from the wound it made and red chakra spilled out from the unmarred region, healing already complete.

Her right came around again, palm open towards his stomach, his own right fist impacted with the palm, red and blue chakra flashing away harmlessly. Hinata spun the chakra in her palm and herself in relation to Naruto, using the new momentum to drive a foot into the side of his face and evading his attempt to do the same, she sprang away, kicking him again in the head with the process, flinging this time three kunai into his chest, the impact and the kick driving him towards the ground faster than he'd already been falling. He hit the ground with a cloud of dust and a resounding 'thump' while Hinata attached to a tree nearby and looked down at the explosion, her expression vaguely unhappy.

It changed to shock when three kunai, slick with blood, shot back out of the dust cloud with amazing force, the Hyuuga hopped away from her spot, byakugan switching on just in time to catch the red-orange blur that erupted from the impact site. This time the blows that lashed out from her sparring partner were faster, frenzied, utterly uncoordinated. Amidst the storm of blows she barely had time or opportunity to counterattack, and when she did the blow merely slowed him down for a second, her bloodline eyes showing her that the savage, ripping damage that was being shot through him was healing over rapidly thanks to the aura of red chakra that rose only a millimeter from his skin.

Hinata was now fighting with everything she had, her hands were mere blurs as they turned aside heavy blows and powerful kicks that Gai might've been proud of, each block becoming a stab at his tenketsu that was ultimately proven ineffective as his the blocked chakra-pores exploded open under the pressure, healing instantly just that much hardier for it. However, even this hidden reservoir of skill couldn't keep her going for long, the blonde's attacks were aggressive, and damn fast, and it was taking up a lot of her chakra to keep blocking him.

Knowing she couldn't keep it up indefinitely, she drew out her final two kunai and began using them instead, while perhaps not as damaging to Naruto's chakra system, she was fairly sure that having sharp iron dig through your legs or forearms was an unpleasant experience. It was also taking less chakra to drive the metal spikes into his flesh to divert each attack, and it was obviously taking him much more to suddenly have to heal long tears or splits in his body.

Naruto's response to the sudden new form of aggression was simple, draw out more chakra. Now each blow sped even stronger and faster, a faint blue aura now clinging to his skin, while a red mist enveloped two centimeters off of his body in a crimson sheathe. Newly grown claws and fangs were added into the foray, reforming each time they were sliced away, but not without leaving brutally painful slashes along his foes defensive appendages and stomach.

During the whole thing, they were swaying this way and that up and down the trunk of a tree (bearing the brunt of a demon's chakra with bad control issues, the tree was unhappy with this), Naruto was laughing, a happy, not carefree laugh. To many it might've been eerily insane, but not much after he'd started laughing, Hinata had joined him, although she was not also alternately drooling and frothing or bleeding from the eyes nose and ears. At some tacit signal, both stopped, bodies weary and stumbled to the forest floor before collapsing into undignified sprawls.

Labored breathing was the only sound for several minutes, had one walked in to see them, they might be terrified. On one side lay the Uzumaki boy, bright blonde hair a blood-crusted mass, one arm of his orange jacket gone from where the arm had been blown off, similar to one leg below the knee, and the gaping hole where a part of his abdomen had been removed. He was wearing a new t-shirt beneath it though, so that was something. His sleeve was shredded and so were the knees and below in his pants, from the kunai Hinata had used, the visible arm was also streaked with blood.

On the other side was Hyuuga Hinata, who's jacket sported several new tears from claw-looking things. There was a nasty bruise forming on her cheek and more along her torso, her hair was a mess, though not too much bloodied, and there were three angry red streaks on her cheek, like half a set of whiskers. If the smile on her face was anything to go by, she had had the best time of her life.

"You know what'd make this even better?" one of them asked.

There was the 'sound' (that is to say, the empathetic knowledge of what someone else is feeling without seeing their expression) of a grin before Hinata responded. "A huge number of untrained bandits just begging for slaughter?" Naruto made a sound, Hinata took it for a positive and giggled cheerfully.

They settled into a companionable silence for a little bit before Naruto spoke again. "You're really very strong… You don't act like it though, why not?"

Naruto was not subtle, Hinata knew that, and she didn't care. He was powerful enough that he obviously didn't need it, so why did it matter? She answered him. "Konoha isn't worthy of having the real me."

"Ah." A strange conclusion, but she had to have her own reasons, and it wasn't the blonde's place to question those reasons.

Hinata took it to be her turn to ask a question. "Why are you so strong? You were always the dead last in the academy," she reminded him of his former state. He smirked slightly as she could see with her byakugan.

"You know the Kyuubi?" He heard a shifting he took to be a nod. "It didn't die, Yondaime sealed it into me for some unknowable reason. I met the fox and I take its power." There was a stiffening and a long pause that Naruto paid little attention to.

"The Kyuubi?" a grunt from Naruto. "And you're not actually the monster, but it's sealed inside you?" Another affirmative grunt. "Really?" An exasperated but affirmative grunt. This time Hinata made a sound, Naruto didn't think it was affirmative or negative, but he didn't know how to classify it.

"Hinata?"

There was another long sound that seemed like a continuation of the first. It was partially disturbing to the blonde, who was ill-used to sounds of physical or emotional pleasure from others. He was of course familiar with his own sounds of pleasure, but hearing sadistic laughter wasn't the same as hearing a mewl-moan hybridization from a girl. A hot girl.

A few minutes went by before he looked at her and nudged her slightly. "Hinata?"

Finally she turned to look at him, lavender eyes shining with something he couldn't identify. "N-nothing, Naruto-kun." He raised an eyebrow, the stutter had been natural that time. Deciding that it probably didn't matter, he shrugged dismissively and sat up shakily, offering her a hand in doing the same.

She graciously accepted it and the two supported each other as they made their way towards the village again. As they approached the edge of the forest, the pair halted suddenly, Hinata disentangled herself from the blond, giving him a wicked smile before her mask came over her again.

"U-uhm, g-good night, Naruto-kun," She gave him a little bow and he had to keep from snorting amusedly.

"G'night Hinata-chan! Let's fight again some time soon." She nodded to him, oh she would like that, and the two parted ways. Upon reaching her home, Hinata ducked and slipped and stumbled through the estate into her room, and collapsed into bed, delighting in wonderful dreams when she did. She'd face hell from her father tomorrow, but Hinata didn't care, her mask was weak, but she could take out Hiashi anytime, that was all that mattered.

Naruto stumbled into his own home, deployed his Icha Icha books back into the shelf, shucked the jumpsuit, t-shirt, and the boxers, and slipped into bed. He replayed the fight over and over again in his mind, and the unusual note in his mind when she held her own against him in the fight. As he reflected, he came to three conclusions.

First, he needed to train harder, much harder. Second, if there were fights like that to look forward to, he could really wait for his mass slaughter missions, no matter how much he didn't want to wait. And finally, he had lied to himself earlier. Uzumaki Naruto did indeed know what physical lust felt like now, physical desire and an emotional aspect that he still wasn't entirely sure he was capable of.

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The Third Hokage stared at the woman who sat in front of him, she looked… upset to say the least. Being wrongfully imprisoned for thirteen years might do that to someone. She wore a dull blue jumpsuit, a leaf hitai-ate and a chuunin vest. Her hair was fascinating if you were generous, and nappy if you were mean, it was also a relatively unappealing shade of dark red that was almost brown but red enough to be distinguishable. Eyes, narrowed now, were hazel, even and collected, but that was perhaps because a certain life seemed to be gone from them now.

She had been attractive in every sense once, no longer so after improper nutrition and hard labor for so long, replacing that beauty was an earthy strength now, replacing the love once present in her was bitterness. Replacing the drive, complacency. Konoha had broken the woman, and yet she continued to offer herself to them as a ninja. It stunned Sarutobi, but that was simply who she was, sad as it made him to see.

He shuffled the papers on his desk around for a bit and cleared his throat. "I guess we're done here then. Anything else I can do for you?"

She whispered softly, and then leaned forward to speak up at him. "Where. Is. My. Son?"

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End Chapter Four At Any Cost

Author Note: Cliffhanger? No! Yes! Depends on your point of view! This woman will be featured more in the future, but who is she? Why is Hinata acting not Hinata? Because I like her that way, and it makes the ending make sense more. Yeah, so if you can be bothered, please review. This might not be beta'd when it gets to you though, yeah.

Yeah, in a few chapters when Naruto gets his weapon, the rating goes to M, because I. Really. Like. Gore. Sorry folks who are disappointed by this, and I don't know much what to do about Sakura, tell me your thoughts in review form!


	6. Chapter 5

1Author note: I'm realizing, it's kind of mixed yeah? Less than half of the people on seem to be perverts, is it really so uncommon? Or is it simply the repressive society into which we are indoctrinated? Well it should go without saying that if killing people isn't wrong, then being a pervert isn't wrong. So long as you can get away with it.

At Any Cost

Chapter Five

Love is a four-letter word.

I don't own Naruto. Usually.

Kakashi glanced at Naruto, it was roughly six A.M., both were sitting at the bridge, both had their noses buried in Icha Icha Paradise. Well Kakashi had his nose buried in the book, and Naruto was reading his copy, but he kept looking up with glazed over eyes and a small, happy smile on his face. In a way it frightened Kakashi, he'd never seen Naruto look like that before. In fact he'd never seen _anyone_ look like that before. It might've been food poisoning, he hoped it wasn't because Naruto had given him one of the steamed buns from his morning run.

Finally the jounin broached the subject, after the silence got awkward for him. "Hey, Naruto, what's up?" at the blonde's inquisitive grunt, he elaborated. "You keep spacing out. Why's that?"

Naruto paused for some length of time before looking up at his sensei and smiling. "Met a girl," was all he said.

Kakashi inclined his head slightly, Naruto never struck him as the type to be infatuated, but apparently he'd been wrong. "Is she strong?" Kakashi, knowing Naruto for a year already, understood the boy's values. The only response was Naruto indicating the wild slashes that ruined his jumpsuit even more. Kakashi gave a slightly worried nod. "You really ought to get some new clothes, those are torn and burnt to hell." Naruto shrugged dismissively.

"No one sells orange," he said.

Kakashi had no response for such a statement.

------------------

When Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke met up with them at seven thirty, the two continued reading, as they had the previous day. Once again this seemed to infuriate Sasuke, and confuse Sakura. The pink-haired genin, to her credit was quickly able to deduce the source of the problem, it explained why Kakashi and Naruto had been so late so frequently and now why they continued reading in spite of their teammates being present and ready to go. It was a matter that clearly reached into the deep undermind of both individuals, it was probably a subconscious behavior even.

To sum it up, they were jerks. Of course, in Naruto's case, she didn't mean it as a bad thing, just a simple fact, and probably due in large part to Kakashi's influence. She just prayed that Sasuke wouldn't pick up the jinchuuriki and jounin's habit. And on the subject of Sasuke, she couldn't quite figure out why he was being so antagonistic towards the blonde. It wasn't like Naruto had done much to them, just threatened to kill them if they got in his way… and inferred that they were so weak that it wouldn't even be worth it to fight them… Okay so maybe there was a slight justification for Sasuke's irritation, but he seemed to be almost obsessing over the matter and-

Oh wait. She gave an internal sigh, this would be extraordinarily troublesome.

-----------------

Sasuke had the grace to wait all of fifteen minutes while the two others on the team ignored him. Uchiha Sasuke was not used to being ignored, and in truth it grated on his nerves, no one ignored him damnit! He led a hard, lonely life, there was no one around ever to show him love or supportiveness like he needed, he'd always been compared to Itachi, always. Well… alright, after Itachi killed the clan he wasn't compared to him anymore, and while his father never gave him praise from that point, he never had the chance either. Conversely the villagers _did_ give him much praise, and much support, many had offered to take him into their homes after the massacre, but he had declined them all.

Now that he thought about it, he obviously wasn't as strong as Kakashi, but neither was Naruto. He'd always been top of the class in the academy, didn't that mean that he was the strongest, the best? He couldn't figure it out, and now he was becoming even more confused as things went on, why were people so nice to him anyway? Obviously he had a tragic past, he knew that better than anyone, but he always acted like such an ass…

_I do NOT act like an ass! I simply know my worth in this village! Stupid Naruto, stupid Kakashi, trying to mess with my mind while they're_ "just reading their goddamn perverted books…" Sasuke didn't know when he started to think out loud, but Sakura was giving him a slightly strange look, only mostly laden with the fangirl devotion a part of him secretly craved. Anger flared up in him again, damn Naruto, getting him so riled up! Sasuke stood up and glared down at Naruto.

"Hey dobe, if we're not going to be doing anything for another hour again, then fight me."

------------------

Naruto, who was enjoying his book and his thoughts of Hinata, looked up suddenly at Sasuke, he recognized something in his eyes and a part of him bristled at it, he sensed the back of his mind becoming engulfed in red as Kyuubi whispered for him to kill. Naruto didn't silence the demon yet and glanced over to Kakashi, who gave him a shrug without looking up from his book. Standing swiftly, the blonde pointed to a nearby field that he felt would be perfect for a slight workout, a cursory glance at Sakura had him reconsider what he had been about to say to her.

He pushed the book into her hands with a dark, serious look in his eyes. "If any harm comes to that book, I will destroy you and your family, and resurrect your ancestors so I can kill them too." His expression lightened immeasurably. "Of course you can feel free to read it while I handle the walking ego!" He quickly turned away from her and headed towards the field, Sasuke was already waiting there for him.

Naruto inclined his head at Sasuke, gauging him mentally, and then shrugged slightly, getting into a loose combat stance. Sasuke settled himself into the traditional Uchiha style, much neater, much cleaner, fewer openings, but less chance for attack. Sasuke considered the differences, Naruto was just waiting, mind settling into a sort of zen rage.

It appeared to Naruto, that Sasuke believed there was some sort of chance that he should win, for no obvious reason, the Uchiha thought that he was entitled to strength, perhaps by his bloodline? Whatever the case, Naruto couldn't stand the thought of entitlement, it flew in the face of strength and evolution, and neither aspect of the dual-natured blonde would accept such a thought. Sasuke burst from his position, lunging forward with a fist, Naruto's fist met the arm at the bicep, drawing a wince from the Uchiha who hadn't initially taken Naruto seriously. Naruto's foot slid along the ground as his other arm reached forward and impacted Sasuke in the stomach.

Sasuke let his feet leave the ground and hopped back with the punch, leaping forward again with a savage round kick towards Naruto's head, fully expecting the blonde to evade the maneuver. Seeing no opening should Sasuke connect, Naruto ducked beneath the kick, exactly as Sasuke anticipated and opening himself to the continuing round kick from his other leg, bringing the Uchiha to face his opponent again. This time however Naruto accepted the kick, and stepped forward inside the Uchiha's defense, farther arm cocked back even while Sasuke's shin dug into his exposed side, and Naruto's fist (with the blonde's total body mass and muscle force behind it) landed in the center of Sasuke's ribcage.

As Sasuke flew back from the force of the punch, Naruto's fist began to glow an angry red, drawing a fox-grin from the blonde. "Smote." He stated confidently, and turned away to retrieve his book. Naruto made absolutely no note of his bruised and internally bleeding abdomen, it healed up soon enough anyway. He had a slight grin on his face while Sakura went to check on her teammate and he settled down to read again. No matter how awkward Sasuke and Sakura made the situation, he could live with it, he had an equal now.

---------------------

Hyuuga Hinata woke, smiling in a slow and dopey manner. After a brief wake-up shower she dressed herself in her traditional clothes, they hid most of her injuries from sight, save for the few cuts on her hands and the now-pink lines that went across her face. She rather liked the lines, they had a certain similarity to Naruto's. Hinata paused at that thought, let a blush creep over her and twidled her fingers nervously, letting her mask slide into place.

Hinata didn't actually know what to think of the blonde ninja. He wasn't much of a ninja per se, but then again he was so strong that when he was of age, none would be able to stand against him, and with the Kyuubi (a slight tremor went through her at the thought of the omnipotent beast) sealed in him, he'd only become stronger. Of course, she'd have to keep working too, that fight last night had drained her so much she was still exhausted today, but at least she'd managed to hold him at bay, and he seemed to have been going all out against her.

So Hinata was feeling rather good as she exited her home, body hunched forward, eyes downcast, she once again felt like eating somewhere in town, where she didn't have to put up with her father's bullshit. With no one any the wiser, she slipped out the front gate and headed into town, body running on masked autopilot while her thoughts drifted around in her head. Hinata knew that the class rankings reflected not a bit of the actual skill of students, after all she'd been only in the upper half of the class, Shino had been dead-middle and Kiba had been near the lower end of the spectrum.

Of course she knew now that despite his perversion, Shino was almost as strong as her, he could probably beat her in a fight simply because of his destruction bugs, the style was excellent against her primary combat form. Kiba, conversely, was an excellently skilled tracker, could hold his own in combat and had a remarkable grasp of how to use his own talents best without making the fight harder for the others of his team. After a fashion, Kiba was the ideal teammate, if you ignored his loud and brash behavior.

Hinata's reflection over her team went on through her mind as she settled into the ramen shop she frequented, a glance up at the wizened old man, and both lit up with smiles, the girl's somewhat muted by the presence of her nervous mask. It was fascinating, this time of her day, she always felt detached, separate, while her mask did things. She heard herself nervously squeak out a request for miso ramen, but she hadn't willed herself to speak, perhaps she had multiple personalities? Or was the mask just so deeply engrained that it was autonomous in her? She didn't know and didn't care, and a few moments later she had ramen sitting in front of her.

Naruto used to always eat ramen, she remembered, later she found out how deeply he hated the noodle-soup, but it was already too late for her to change her views on it. As Naruto's primary weakness was his novels, Hinata reveled in her own Achilles' heel, which was ramen. Not many knew of her ramen-love, those that did were mildly disturbed by it, she didn't eat it rapaciously like Naruto had, nor in vast quantity, but when anybody threatened a bowl that she had, even her mask exuded killing intent rarely seen outside of charging armies.

She finished her bowl and bowed politely to the shopkeeper, paid for her meal and departed to meet with her team. As usual she was there before her teammates, a glance with her Byakugan told her that her sensei wasn't there yet either, so she sat down against a tree and let her mask pull away just a little bit, smiling as she rubbed the pink flesh on her cheek, eyes dark despite their pallor. She plucked kunai from her holster and twirled them idly on one hand, noticing the dry blood, she watched in fascination as the crusty red swirled in a pattern, making it look like the air was bleeding.

Her mind turned to the owner of the blood, and her own plans for the future, obviously Konoha was worthless, it tried to hold down the weapon Kyuubi, and it had done nothing to extend a hand of friendship to the Hyuugas, notably Hyuuga Hinata. Having received no dedication, or places to fit into society, Hinata had made a person who fit the bill for the places made available to her. Naruto had never done that, he had continued on, with the same thought that the people of Konoha and anyone but the people who actually did something unnecessary, something kind, were worthwhile. Currently both only knew that from the Hokage, it was for him that Hinata stayed in the village, the day he died, she would either stay for her next precious person, or she would leave and go somewhere where she could be the real Hyuuga Hinata.

If she could secure Naruto's interest in her, ensure he developed no further ties to the village, he would come with her, probably with little enough resistance to the idea. The pale-eyed girl let out a sadistic giggle, surprising and frightening Shino who'd just arrived, she thought of it was a wonderful and malicious way to get what she wanted while harming the leaf. She did not see it as a perversion of a girlish dream to be whisked away from a horrible life by her knight in shining armor.

After all, she wasn't some wussy, overly feminine, stuttering fool. She was Hyuuga Hinata, hardened killer, a firm believer in the 'might-makes-right' philosophy, and she had set her eyes on something that se was determined to make hers. She sensed Kurenai approaching and quickly slipped her mask back over herself and slipped her kunai into their holster. Her eyes flashed a warning at Shino, who was already reading from a small orange novel, she might just have imagined the slight glint in his glasses after the threat.

-------------

Yuuhi Kurenai dropped into training field thirteen and took stock of her team, well what was present of it at least. Shino and Hinata already here, Kiba not yet. This was normal, and probably to be expected.

Shino was in fact reading a little orange novel that she had spent half an hour screaming at him for the day prior. For her efforts she received a brief but amazingly well thought-out explanation of why in fact the book was perverted, but why that wasn't bad and why it objectified women far less than it insulted the mental capacities of men. Kurenai had been so shocked by the answer, thought most of it she knew was bullshit, that she had had almost nothing to say in response.

True, the book was proclaimed as fiction, and having a ready source of fiction helped one to separate truth from fantasy, and as fiction it harmed nor insulted any real women, and in fact preached a philosophy that overall held women as superior to men. Perhaps also true that the process and methods of sexual intercourse were _so _well documented in _so_ many sources already, that it was insulting to print and expect people (mostly men) to purchase what is essentially plagiarism plus. Despite that, Kurenai didn't have to _like_ it.

And on the subject of things she disliked, there was Hinata. Kurenai liked Hinata, the concept, but hated Hinata in practice. She wanted to help the girl, but it was hard, and she reminded her so much of her own self at the age, it was in fact a painful reminder of her less pleasant times in life. Not that it mattered, she noticed the three lines on her cheek and instantly felt her rage stoked, had that bastard father of hers hurt her?

"Hinata, where did you get those cuts?" Kurenai stood over her in her most intimidating pose, finding it was effective for getting the truth out of the girl who normally wanted to protect everyone else. The real Hinata was not at all impressed with her sensei.

She cowered slightly under the fierce presence of their teacher before stuttering slightly. "I-i-I g-got them, s-sparring yesterday… sensei," Kurenai's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Kiba actually cut you in sparring?" Hinata quickly and fiercely shook here head, reflecting internally that Kiba didn't have the power to even come close to her. "Then who?"

"N-na-naruto-kun… He's r-really strong… once he gets going." This made Kurenai falter slightly. Unlike most she had never thought of him as the Kyuubi brat, well not until she met him, then she saw the most alien creature that passed itself off for human. Of course, being Kurenai, she scolded herself for judging him so quickly, he'd never known any sort of kindness, and almost everyone treated him the same way, he was just spoiled (Aidis 1 and 1). That was what she decided, but to have actually hurt one of her students, perhaps she needed to talk to Kakashi about training his students not to hurt other Konoha shinobi? Hinata seemed to catch her train of thought and felt her ire rise at it. "Don't even think to have him hold back against me, EVER!"

The suddenness and severity of Hinata's shout shocked her sensei, and the cold rage buried in her ivory eyes was a thing that Kurenai almost couldn't reconcile with her image of the timid blue-haired girl. Who was this? Did she even know her? The rage was gone and the momentary boldness fell away as well. "H-Hinata…"

The girl cleared her throat and didn't look up at her teacher. "N-naruto-kun… he has no one, s-s-someone has to… to take him seriously. How could anyone think l-like that if… if they couldn't be seen like that themselves!" This seemed to be Hinata's cooling stage between breaking point and normal. Kurenai thought about it and realized that the two were actually perfect for one another, and decided very quickly that she shouldn't butt in. If only to prevent Hinata from blowing up again, the killer intent she had given off at that point had been even more overpowering than if you threatened her ramen.

With a shaky breath, Kurenai forced herself into composure. "I guess you're right Hinata, and it is your life to do with as you please, but if he seriously injures you I want you to tell me about it alright?" Hinata gave a slight nod. She decided it wasn't worth mentioning the six kneecaps she'd ruined or the seven internal organs she'd crushed through sheer effort of power and chakra.

Kiba chose that moment to arrive and gave everyone a sheepish wave. "Yo! Sorry I'm late, sis' was worried about Akamaru and I sure as hell wasn't gonna piss her off…" He looked around at them. "Uhm… I miss something?" He looked to Hinata, usually the one who enlightened him as to what was actually going on, and saw the lines on her cheek. Being Kiba, he misunderstood with great enthusiasm. "New tattoo, Hinata? Looks nice, feral kinda, a lot like Uzumaki's actually! Though it actually looks good on you." He couldn't tell why but she blushed fiercely at the praise and mumbled a thank you, Kurenai sighed and decided to outline the day for her students.

They weren't getting any farther with this issue today.

---------------

End Chapter Five At Any Cost

Aidis 1: Spoiled? With his treatment?

1: It's widely agreed that Kurenai's really smart. At the same time, she'd probably know that being spoiled isn't expecting things to always go your way, its expecting to be treated the same way no matter what your actions are. In this regard, Naruto is spoiled without the benefit of affection. If you have a different view on the subject, please make note of it in a review or a pm, I'd love to discuss it.

Author note: Didn't get to the point I planned to, but this seemed to be a good place to end it. Roughly 3300 words seems… adequate. I guess. I don't much feel like describing D-rank missions, but if people ask for them I guess I will… Next chapter's another filler thing, sorta, mostly some flashbacks in dreams. Probably another date (read: fight) with Hinata, and Sakura catching onto Naruto's 'infidelity'. Next time, At Any Cost, Masks are too troublesome. Go ahead, punk, blink.

Aidis: I was gonna say something but I can't remember for the life of me what. I guess I'll just give a spiel about how I want you to review and if you don't I'll eat your liver while you sleep, errr, looks like I've already done it. Whatever.

Islagatt: Yeah… Folks don't mind him, Aidis is my beta and a friend, so he's gotten suddenly over-defensive about reviews. If you want the spiel though, by all means go read my other story A Demon's Dream, its in chapter thirteen's ending notes.


	7. Chapter 6

Author Note: I'm swearing off crackfiction for a while now. Not much of it is well written, and when it is… Suffice it to say I don't need to know about Akatsuki and shark porn.

At Any Cost

Chapter Six

It's always important to know your roots.

I don't own Naruto

-

Two weeks had passed since team seven had been formed, two weeks of dull monotony, interrupted by sparring sequences with Hinata, his mate. He didn't fully understand what she had meant, or how their relationship had been defined until she had quite aggressively informed him after their most recent brawl, again it had left both of them utterly exhausted, but she had found the strength to lean up, roll over and level the most frightening of glares at him. In spite of his raw power, in spite of the Kyuubi, Naruto was terrified of Hinata right then.

He reflected, that perhaps fear was an acceptable emotion.

_Flashback_

_The two collapsed once more into heaving masses, gasping for breath. By now, Uzumaki Naruto's orange jumpsuit was ruined, he only wore it now for special occasions, meaning most of the time he had to wear a white or blue t-shirt with a red spiral leaf on it and the pale grey shorts Sasuke tended to wear. He didn't really care one way or another but he missed the jumpsuits. It mattered little though, because either way his extremities and his face were soaked in blood, like usual. Hinata's scars had become a trio of paler pink lines across her already pale cheek, he rather liked them as well, and she had preened under such praise._

_Rather to his shock as he mused over all of this, was her suddenly sitting up and getting right in his face, swinging herself around to straddle his waist and pin his arms at his sides. Her fists bunched up his t-shirt and pulled him up from the ground, forcing him to look into her pale eyes, lit now by some fiery determination. Determination was an odd sight for Naruto, who'd seen it rarely and was less familiar with the emotion himself, but her words were much stranger and he forgot about that simple emotion. _

_"Uzumaki Naruto, when the time comes, you _will_ be my mate, and no other female's, do you understand me?" What could the blonde have said? No? He rather liked having his bits and tackle remain intact, thank you! Besides, he didn't mind much, she was the strongest female of his age, with a powerful bloodline, the rational portion of his mind insisted she was a wonderful mate. He nodded, eyes wide like a frightened bunny, she gave her own determined nod and got off him, collapsing beside him again. "That is of course, unless someone comes along who's stronger than you."_

_End Flashback_

Naruto had never had anything in his life, nothing belonged to him really and no one had ever owed or vowed him anything. Maybe some secret part of him longed for the family that she had offered him there. Or perhaps some part of him was possessive in some obsessed fashion, and he couldn't stand to see her be some other male's. Whatever it was, Naruto knew that he could never allow her to be another man's, she had to be his mate, she just… had to.

Were Naruto the introspective sort he might've notice that Hinata's words were deliberate and carefully phrased to taunt him, challenge him, make him work at being stronger and stronger, beyond where he already was. But he wasn't the introspective sort, and she knew that, she played him easily, in her own eagerness for a powerful tool. Apparently, to people with similar value structures, Naruto was an open book.

Probably why the Kyuubi had first attempted to influence Naruto, although, back then Naruto's book had misled the nine-tailed fox, certain values overstated, certain things not mentioned.

His mind turned to the first meeting with his tenant, while he reflected on the things 'given' to him, his power and the source of who he was.

_Flashback_

_Blood soaked the packed dirt in the alleyway, consigning(1) it to muddy ruin, much like the boy who was the source of the blood, although the blood itself had had no say in the boy's fate, rather that had been determined by the unhappy men gathered around the rapidly cooling and still horribly alive child. Who the men were, mattered very little, ninja or civilian was irrelevant, as Naruto was too young to even know the proper defenses with a kunai, much less old enough to buy one with his meager funds and the inflated prices he was subject to._

_The body, still breathing, was left alone, the men filtering away as some small semblance of a conscience made them see the child they had killed, and not the demon they sought to slay._

_But the boy was not dead, he refused to die, a cold voice in him refused to be extinguished, and when all the other voices and echoes in his mind had grown silent, that voice remained, keeping the blonde boy alive for just another moment. Naruto woke to a dismal world, hot and humid, the air smelling rank, there was a wall behind him and the corridor he stood in stretched on for what seemed like an eternity, he was thankful that the floors at least were dry. Something drew him forward, down the corridor and past doors with labels his young mind had no use for 'id' 'superego' and the like, all were a blur 'til he came to a branching corridor, and followed it. _

_At the end of the shorter corridor, he found a massive room, with sickly yellow lighting, the light-sucking black iron bars that dominated the other side of the room were decorated only by a yellow sticky note with an elaborate kanji for 'seal' on it. Beyond the gates was an indistinct figure, the source of the heat, there was a vague impression in the boy's mind of claws and teeth and too many tails, his lizard brain(2) drove fear into his body, but the cold voice, all that remained to him, overpowered it. If he ran, he would die. _

_From the indistinct and shadowed figure came a powerful, deep voice. "**Welcome mortal, to you're mind. Desolate place isn't it? Probably because you're dying, but I don't like that idea, being sealed within you and all, so I am giving you a… gift. Yes, that's it, a gift of my appreciation, for all these years of keeping the grounds well-groomed.**" The fox gave a mocking laugh as the angry tide of red-chakra swept out from the bars and engulfed the child. _

_In the real world, Naruto's body surged suddenly, body brimming with power until now not even imagined. It soothed out the cold voice of survival in his mind, power consumed every fiber of his being, and the seven year old Naruto just knew that with power like this he could destroy the whole world. _

_The little bits of pain in his body were gone, brushed away like eraser debris in a hurricane. The boy stood and regarded the world around him, basking in the power that washed through his coils and pathways, and then he began to walk, eyes glazed and red with his pupils fanning high and low. As Naruto reflected, body heading for home, this was what it was like to be hokage, to be the strongest in the world…_

_End Flashback_

A sigh escaped him as he looked at the clock, three a.m., the hour when men can't sleep and stare at the ceiling with memories and questions that can't be answered. He couldn't remember where he read that little bit, but it had stuck with him, even though he himself never had such things. In another time-stream, Naruto asked unanswerable questions all the time, and always would, he was like other people in that regard, he valued other people.

But this version was thankful that wasn't him, otherwise he wouldn't have been strong enough. He wouldn't have had the power to do what he had, what he needed to do.

_Flashback_

_It had been over a week since Naruto had fallen and risen again on the blood-colored flames of Kyuubi's power, and the blonde had heard nothing from his demonic tenant since then, he had even begun to wonder if the terrifying power had been real or imagined. Certainly no one had claimed credit for nearly killing him, so it didn't seem likely to have been a real occurrence. But that power had been so exhilarating, so thrilling, he couldn't forget it and he didn't want to either._

_Naruto dug into his mind as he tried to sleep, searching for anything that could bring that power back, he did it every night, and every night he failed, falling asleep frustrated, feeling weak. Tonight, like every other night, he felt a searing heat on his cheeks when he found no answers, and wondered what that was as well. Unlike most other nights though, he did not dream of power, he woke instantly in a place where his mind made too much sense for it to be a dream. It was a familiar place, and yet dissimilar from the last time he had seen it._

_He stood again in the humid, too-warm halls and stared about him at the ruination clearly visited upon it. Chunks of cement and metal piping were strewn and scattered, as if rent apart by some great, questing claw. Was this landscape his mind? Torn and sundered by his efforts to uncover his own hidden strength? He pushed away the questions and trudged through the debris towards that room where he found power. It was easier to find this time, as if it was closer somehow. _

_In the room he looked up and sought out the fox again, ah, there, he saw the subtle swaying in the shadow that could only be its tails. He thought to demand the power again, but the fox spoke before he could. "**You see boy? My power will make you great, but you shall not receive any of it, unless you bind yourself to my will. All I want is for you to go forth and destroy, slaughter and indulge in my power while…**"_

_"No"_

_This caught the fox off-guard, it turned its massive head towards him and blinked eyes the color of molten gold. "**What did you say, you human brat?**"_

_"I said no. I won't be anyone's tool."_

_"**Is that a fact? Then I guess you have no need of my power, I guess then I won't be giving you any more of it.**" Kyuubi's taunting snicker stirred the basic nature of Naruto, the need that he had for that vicious power. _

_The blonde looked up at the beast and growled low and dangerous. Searing white light illuminated the rust-red beast and drove it backwards in sudden reaction. Naruto watched in growing amusement while the fox whimpered, its fur smoldering from the intense brightness. He strolled towards the bars. "You'll not give me anymore? You don't get it stupid fox, this is my body, this is my mind, your power BELONGS to me, I'll take it when I want!" Streamers of blood red wafted from the burning fur, and Naruto reached out his hands, laughing as if embracing an old friend or perhaps a loved one. _

_The demon's chakra slammed into his young frame and filled him with power, Naruto woke from the dream, screaming in agony as the power scoured his chakra pathways, energy bursting from his pores in dazzling red light. His throat never went hoarse from the strain, it kept healing over again. _

_Like most nights, Naruto didn't sleep that night, but he was alright with that this time._

_End Flashback_

It'd been Kyuubi's first and only real attempt to corrupt him, swerve him from a righteous and mighty path, and obviously it'd failed miserably. That being confirmed as it was, what happened to make Naruto so much different from the normal people? Was there in fact some secret, inherent quality to humans that made them value one another?

He couldn't see anything in people, so perhaps he was blind to it, or was everyone else hallucinating? No, he didn't think either was the case, and all the wondering was making his head hurt. He pulled another stream of red light into his coils, a scream coming with it, and dropped off to sleep, content that he was strong. And being strong was all that mattered.

-

Hinata concurred, he was strong and that was all that mattered, that was why she pinned him, straddled him and informed him that they would be mates. She had cautioned that if she found someone stronger they would take her affections by default, it was of course nonsense. Even if anyone else was as strong as Naruto, they didn't have a demon sealed into them, and they weren't likely to make her own progeny far more terrifying than simple Hyuuga.

Naruto made it worth it. Not in any sappy, soft kind of way, but she knew that the jinchuuriki made her life to this point worthwhile, and anything after this, she'd still have the most powerful weapon in history at her side. And he'd probably be happy for it. Hinata was a bit more grounded in the traditional ways of thinking, though she rarely used those ways, she still understood that she should perhaps feel guilty for using the emotionally disaffected boy.

She just couldn't find it in herself to care though, sure she liked the boy well enough, and she would defend him were he threatened and unable to fight on his own. But to have someone important? That seemed… dangerous.

_Flashback_

_Hinata was very young when it happened, the kumo-nin finding her and taking her unconscious form from her bedroom. She had been asleep, and she didn't remember much of the night, she did see the look of frightened determination in her father's eyes when his palm landed in the nin's forehead. Had her byakugan been active, she'd have seen the kumo-nin's brain not only have its chakra pathways destroyed, but the mass of gray-matter be reduced to semi-solid pulp as well. _

_She wouldn't regret missing that sight for many years to come. _

_While the night itself had gone by in such a blur, she had felt completely and totally loved for one brief instant in her life, she knew that her father would do anything to keep her safe in that one instant. Even then she would have proclaimed that she needed no one's protection, but to have it freely given was a touching sentiment in its own right. As she reflected on it, she realized how fast and precise her father had moved when he had done that, it transcended even his normal swiftness, the strike was brutal, messy, powerful more than the jyuken would be conventionally. _

_It occurred to her then, that perhaps it was the love, the desire for her safety that had brought out the fiercest and strongest in her father. She had heard a branch member say once that they had to protect their teammates on a mission, and on that mission he had acted faster, stronger, braver than ever, all on reflex with no thought of 'what if I'm not good enough'. Did protecting precious individuals create true strength?_

_She resolved that night, she would become strong and make her family proud, she would have people precious to her and make them proud and protect them with her life._

_End Flashback_

She had of course, been utterly foolish then. She continued to be foolish even now, when there was no reason or excuse for her to be such. Despite her best efforts, her father's skill went beyond her own, even if she were to forego her mask of weakness and fight him to the best of her abilities, she would fall. It seemed to her that he took every opportunity he could to remind her mask of this nowadays.

_Flashback_

_Three days passed since Hinata had passed her genin exam with Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino. This particular morning she roused herself after a wonderful slumber, and fell into her mask. Having spoken with Naruto the previous night she was feeling well, but they hadn't fought, so she wasn't in the same euphoric cloud that obscured her judgment the previous morning._

_A fresh set of her traditional Hyuuga-wear, and she meekly stepped out into the corridors, eyes downcast while she muttered darkly against the village in general within her mind. Her father chose that moment to round the corner and the two halted, the one seeing her and face becoming a mask that one normally wears when looking at the presents dogs leave in the house. Hinata kept her eyes down and half-whispered "G-good morn-ning, otou-sama," with a self-depricatingly low bow. _

_His eyes narrowed further at her stuttering habit, and he gave a brief thought to simply passing her by and ignoring her, another thought quickly overrode the previous one and he deigned to see her. "Hinata. You can spare some time before you go to meet your team. Let us spar for a bit." Despite her wish to protest, the poor girl was legitimately hungry, Hinata obeyed, her mask wouldn't even think to object to her father's words._

_So she found herself mutely following after her father into the training dojo, he took up a spot on the opposite side of the room from her and waited. Hinata came to a stop in (almost) the proscribed place for her to begin, and bowed again to her father before stepping into the basic jyuken stance. The hateful man across the room from her reciprocated half the gesture, and then settled in to wait for her attack. _

_Hinata let her head continue hanging while she activated her byakugan, and why not? It could see in three hundred and sixty degrees and at any conceivable mark of those angles. She sprang forward, forward arm remaining in a palm as it flew towards his shoulder, he slapped her hand away with a dismissive slap and brought his own palm around to slap against her stomach, a move her mask could not block. _

_It only had enough chakra to leave a sting but the hit itself knocked the wind out her and threw her back a few paces. Being the magnanimous man he was, Hiashi stood back and waited for his daughter to regain her breath before offering a beckoning gesture. "Again." _

_Some days, Hinata envied the Uchiha traitor._

_End Flashback_

Her father had mattered once, his opinion and approval, but then she had been foolish, as she herself would attest. It had hurt, the first time she had realized just how little she meant in his eyes, but by that time he had already set the foundation for her mask, and the seething buildup of hatred in her mind.

She didn't like revisiting that particular memory, her mask had let Hanabi win a sparring match, and there was a look of genuine relief. That had been the real final source of the split between Hinata and the mask she wore at home and in the village. One might ask at that point, why did she put up such a façade, Naruto had asked the same question when she had explained herself to him.

To put it simply, Hinata held them unworthy. If she isolated her real self, she could escape the life of her mask with no injury to herself she would go somewhere worthy and grace them with the true Hyuuga Hinata. She grinned as the thought of taking her new toy, the blonde jinchuuriki, with her. She was pretty sure that a tool like Naruto was the closest thing she would allow herself to a precious individual, and even then she would never die for him, no matter the circumstances.

Her reasons for this were also fairly simple. Precious people were usually also people that held you to be precious, and if it went both ways, they'd die to protect you. Such effects were disastrous, as she knew from personal experience.

_Flashback_

_Hinata wondered why her uncle Hizashi was never around anymore, but her father wouldn't explain it to her. She had asked him several times over the month following his disappearance, and he had always told her to go play with Neji or something along those lines. Though she would always comply, a part of Hinata was upset at such tactless refusal to answer, and another part was becoming frightened of her cousin, who had grown increasingly mean to her since Hizashi went away. _

_Her father no longer explaining things to her wouldn't have been so bad, in and of itself, but it wasn't the only change in her father's attitude of late. Ever since her uncle vanished from their lives, Hiashi had pushed Hinata harder in her training, much harder. Any mistake was punished severely, in the form of an even harsher subsequent sparring session, and any progress shown was punished with her father either pushing her still harder in the training, teaching her techniques she had no way of knowing, or dismissing her training early and completely ignoring his daughter after that point._

_Though it had taken some doing, she finally had managed to coax the answer to her troubles from Neji, who tactlessly explained that Hizashi was killed because Hiashi was a coward and Hinata was weak. Hinata was cowed by her cousin's fierce anger at the issue, but decided she could probably understand, until she recalled how close Neji and Hizashi had been. _

_She couldn't understand them, not really. _

_So decided, another factor in herself added to the festering issues that made her very angry inside. All of it, she decided, could be traced not to Kumo, for trying to kidnap her. Certainly not herself, for being so weak as to be captured, and not to Hizashi, for giving his life as tradition demanded. No, she decided that the head of her clan, her father, was to blame for all of this, because he suffered the pain of losing a precious person, and dealt with it badly. Having seen Neji's reaction, she decided that was the only reaction possible, so she shifted her idea of the problem to more suit the situation, she blamed Hiashi, for _having_ a precious person._

_End Flashback_

And that in a nutshell was the driving force for Hinata's hidden anti-social beliefs, people could only get close, and since everyone eventually died, there was no reason to get close, it only hurt a bit more. These were not her own thoughts, of course, she would be among the last to acknowledge that her self-made exile and deplorable moral character were the results of significant fear. She was quite convinced, that the whole damn affair was the result of weakness, her father's weakness, the village's weakness, and the Hyuuga clan's weakness.

Damned if she'd let those pathetic bastards benefit by her glorious self. Grousing internally, Hinata got up again, and headed towards the shower in her bathroom. It was maybe four in the morning but she knew she'd get no sleep tonight, and her team would meet up in two hours. Enough time to get some training in under her father's nose.

Hinata would be strong, because she would refuse to let others be strong for her.

-

End Chapter six At Any Cost

Author note: The more I see that ending for this story, the more strange I am convinced it reads. I mean, imagine some noble military commander telling his troops 'End Chapter six At Any Cost!' and they charge off with axe and spear… I'm tired okay? This got finished fast, so… Yeah. I don't like it a lot. We're going to start wave arc next chapter, Naruto is cool, but what's this? Team seven's other components aren't completely worthless?

1: I don't know if my writing seems wordy or not. If it does seem like that, then think of it as a sign of respect, I rarely expect people to know things, and try to only write what my readers will understand. However, worst case scenario? My words are spelled right, use a dictionary.

2: On that note, I don't know a whole hell of a lot about the human mind, but I do no that there is a decidedly 'reptilian' section of the brain with our basest and most self-centered instincts. Arguably one of the deepest parts of the psyche.

Aidis: A bunch of hullabaloo if you ask me!

Islagatt: …. You can't see it but I'm looking around in a shifty manner.


	8. Chapter 7

Author Note: I stopped bitching about reviews, so I found something new to harp on: Common misspellings. I don't mean typos, those I understand, hell, the glorious Simon Green has them, and he even gets paid to write! I mean things like 'Raman' who the fuck doesn't know how ramen is spelled, it is a common food, even here in the US! Another thing, 'sensi'. I just don't get it. Ningen, what a confusing lot, ne?

At Any Cost

Chapter Seven

Crotchety old men are shifty bastards.

I don't own Naruto, if you believe what you read in the papers (more like what you don't read).

-

"Team seven, reporting back. Mission was successful." Kakashi gave a piteous glance to the cat being mauled by its owner. Well mauled wasn't the proper term, he supposed, it was probably the woman's way of trying to show affection, even if it wasn't a fate he would wish on Gai. His attention diverted back towards the chuunin, Manbun Sonmin (1), who was in the process of listing missions for them to go on when his blonde student drew his attention away from the other man.

"Sensei, have you tried to get us a C-rank mission?" His tone was innocent, but obviously he expected his sensei to have done so for some reason.

Kakashi, confused by this, shook his head. "No… Not really. Why?"

This was apparently not what Naruto wanted to hear, he looked to the Hokage with pleading eyes. "Hey, jiisan, why aren't you letting me have any fun missions? If I don't get to kill someone soon… I'll fry from chakra overload or somethin'." The old man twitched in annoyance and concern simultaneously at his adoptive grandson's desires. He knew they were born from a genuine desire to selfishly keep himself from thinking about life for too long, and the boy was certainly good enough, if Mizuki's death were an indication.

He decided that today it'd be easier if he just went along with Naruto's desires, as his advisor had put it, young Uzumaki could be quite troublesome. "Fine, I'll give you a C-rank, I don't promise any combat though," Naruto seemed mollified (contention note) by this, if not entirely appeased, the Sandaime shrugged mentally and decided that was the best he'd get. "Since there are no objections-"

_You didn't give me any time to object_, Kakashi thought wryly.

"Then I will explain your mission." The old man made a gesture and a chuunin went to a curtained doorway, shouting into it 'hey you can come out now!' The person on the other side soon was revealed as a graying old man with a tan that made Naruto jealous. He was also obviously stinking drunk, if the glazed eyes, rosy cheeks and rather cumbersome jug of sake were any indication. "This is Tazuna, from Wave country, he is an architect and contractor, and Wave has hired him to build a bridge from their main island to the rest of the continent. Since there's some considerable distance to cover between here and there, Tazuna-san has asked that we provide some ninja to cover him in case of bandit attacks."

The drunk man looked the ninja over and then looked back to the Hokage. "Hey are you sure those brats're gonna' be able to protect me? They don't even look like ninja, especially the blonde one in the orange jumpsuit!" The man returned his attention to the group assigned to him and noticed a certain glint of fear in the other two's eyes, while the blonde himself merely looked peaceful, almost serene.

Kakashi interrupted his analysis, "I assure you sir, they are far more than they look-" adding mentally _they'd have to be_ "-and should we encounter any serious problems, I am a jounin."

The old man hiccupped and gave a dismissive grunt while the Hokage continued to explain. "Team seven, you will escort Tazuna to Wave country's primary village, where the bridge is already under construction, and then protect the bridge and the crew working on it until it is finished. After that you are to return to Konoha. Dismissed."

Kakashi looked over at the old man and his team, and informed them both of the plan. "Alright, everyone go pack and get some rest, we'll be meeting at the North gate at 0640 hours tomorrow." He disappeared promptly after that and Naruto wandered out to track down Hinata. Surprising most everyone who had gathered, Sakura decided to follow Naruto, and Sasuke quickly went in another direction.

Tazuna, not knowing the story behind team seven and their dysfunctional dynamic, was slightly confused, but shrugged it off with another slug from the sake jug he was carrying. He waved with casual disregard to Manbun Sonmin and the Hokage as well while he headed out for his hotel, prompting a sigh from the chuunin. Sarutobi looked over at him with an inquisitive look and he indicated the departing bridge-maker. "I don't know if it's Naruto's effect or not, but it seems like no one shows the proper respect anymore."

The Hokage only laughed.

-

Sakura, still following Naruto, was working up the nerve to ask him out. She wasn't timid and afraid of being refused, that was Hinata's province (well, she believed that timidity was Hinata's forte), she had to work up the bravery to be in social contact with a creature that could and would kill her without a second thought. This of course prompted her to reflect back on his first words actually to her and Sasuke. 'I won't hurt either of you. There'd be no point.'

Insinuating that they were weak to the point where they were irrelevant to him was something she couldn't put up with, and damned if she was going to let the arrogant prick get away with it. At least, that was what she was thinking. It became a great deal more difficult when she looked again at Naruto, who had just bypassed his favorite steamed bun shop, apparently resolutely going nowhere.

"Uh… H-hey! Naruto!" The blonde spun to face her, still walking (now backwards) towards his goal. His expression was friendly, open, unguarded, much the way he fought. "W-would you.. I mean do you wanna go on a… on a date?" This drew a slightly confused look from the blonde, but he quickly shook his head.

"Sorry Sakura, I don't have any time today, if we're going to be out in Wave country, I won't have a chance to see Hinata-chan for a while. That means much ass-kicking if I get back after a month without saying anything about it." He spoke the last with an exaggerated shudder and waved his adieu to her.

Standing frozen where he had left her, Sakura tried to come to grips with what was just revealed to her. Hinata-chan! When did Naruto ever care about anyone but the Hokage enough to give them a suffix of any sort! It hit her then that perhaps Hinata was strong enough, skilled enough to have attracted Naruto's attention. She disbanded that theory as being ludicrous and impossible on the grounds that Naruto was in no way shape or form human, and Hinata most definitely was merely human. She had even been the creepy, loner, timid girl in the academy!

Sakura was not new to the emotion of jealousy, but never in her life did she think that she would feel it towards someone over Naruto, the blonde idiot, the worthless ninja. Something occurred to her at that point while she began to move, Naruto was regarded as pathetic, but he was stronger than any genin had a right to be, Hinata was seen as timid and weak, frightened, in fact, what must she have been in reality?

Well, that didn't matter, Hinata may have him for fighting ability, but Sakura had him as a teammate and they were about to head out on a multi-week mission without any interference from the Hyuuga girl. Inner Sakura helped out with the idea, "_Hell yeah, true love shall- wait. No. Sasuke is true love…"_ Outer Sakura twitched as her inner self became quiet, hammering out the details of her ideas.

-

Sasuke glowered at nothing in particular as he sat at his kitchen table. He hated being second-best, but he couldn't deny that Naruto could beat him, it seemed easily at that. To make it worse, Sasuke had put himself into the most rigorous training that he could think of, and then pushed it a little bit more. The result had not been pleasant.

His immediately subsequent performance on missions had been so abysmal that Kakashi had in no uncertain terms refused to let him continue the training. He gave him an altered schedule to use in its stead, and promised him a powerful technique with which to sweeten the deal. Of course, Kakashi knew that Sasuke was a sucker for jutsu, so he had not been surprised by the instant, but grudging agreement.

Since then Sasuke's training continued at a grueling but not harmful pace, and his new jutsu seemed like it would be the perfect complement to his fire techniques he was still learning from his own family scrolls. He grinned to himself, perhaps Naruto was actually stronger than him, but he was a better ninja, and he always would be. Their outfits alone gave evidence to that belief.

The quietest part of Sasuke reminded the rest of him that he would still act subservient and calmer towards Naruto, rather than piss the blonde off and risk death. The rest of him ignored the little voice, and went back to the automatic rice cooker, trying to tease apart its workings in his mind.

-

Hinata sat against a tree, eyes closed, peaceful almost, she let herself forget who she was when she was here, it was relaxing in a way. She'd prefer to train, but her body was still exhausted from its fight with Naruto the day before, that didn't stop him, but that was why she deigned to let him be her weapon. On that subject, she looked up to see her tool basking in an inferno of red light, straining his body as fiercely as he could with the chakra overdose. She smiled, it was almost touching to see the level of dedication he put into becoming more powerful, and he did understand what it truly meant to be powerful, she knew that much.

He continued to hold her interest as kage bunshin exploded into existence all around him, lashing forward with kunai to slice and stab his exposed upper body, every wound regenerating in mere seconds, and the bunshin releasing under the horrid pressure of the red chakra overwhelming them. He glowered at the bunshin, materializing farther away and throwing at him before rushing in, and lashed out with the red chakra blaze around him. It was an effort of will to make the chakra work without any sort of hand seals or other guidance for it, and it took way too much focus for Naruto.

Hinata inclined her head to one side as she watched her weapon end his training early, as was his habit, forcibly discharging his chakra into the soil beneath his feet. When there was barely any red chakra left in his system, he turned and stumbled back towards the tree and flopped down unsteadily beside her. She glanced at him curiously. "Done already?" her tone conveyed her obvious displeasure.

The blonde gave a dismissive shrug. "Tell me about hand seals. I have a thought about some new jutsu…" This brought a wide and sadistic smile from Hinata, one he truly liked, it meant she was proud and he had done something unexpected.

"Well… I don't know all the hand seals obviously, but of the ones we learned in the academy…" She paused to recollect the details, there had been a scroll on this very subject in the clan library in fact. (2) "The ram seal is the every-seal, its used for mixing and molding chakra simultaneously in moderate to large amounts. It focuses on physical energy. The bird seal is just the opposite, mixing only very small amounts of chakra with much greater spiritual energy and controlling it far better. The bird seal is fairly well useless for you, biju-boy." Naruto had the decency to blush at the nickname and she licked her lips, one hand straying to a kunai.

"Anyway, the monkey seal molds, mixes and manipulates chakra with unusual density, to put it crudely, it makes faster chakra and creates tension in the body, channeling chakra with the monkey seal can actually cause your body to dump in adrenaline, I think. The boar seal is really kind of specialized, it's used to suppress your chakra signature, making it seem like you're using less chakra than you really are. Kind of useful unless someone can see chakra." She grinned savagely and activated her byakugan, the boy having the presence of mind to look impressed. "I think what you want to know about though, is the snake, the ox, and the dragon."

Indeed, at the mention of the dragon seal, the blonde perked up instantly, and she chuckled, pushing him back from her when he leaned forward. "Hold on. The snake seal rapidly mixes and processes chakra, in total balance and great quantity."

"I could probably use that to draw Kyuubi's chakra out faster, useful…" He received a bump on the top of his head for his comments as Hinata continued.

"Don't interrupt me when I'm enlightening you Naruto. The ox seal is unique in that it focuses on manipulating chakra outside but in contact with the body, it's useful for something like the kananshibari (3) no jutsu. The dragon seal is also rather unique, here in Konoha it was mostly used by the Uchiha clan, because it transmutes chakra into another form of energy, most notably fire, lightning and wind. Before you ask how, no I don't know, I figure it has to do with shifting quantities of spiritual and physical energies back and forth within a given amount of chakra." She sat back against her tree and flipped a kunai into the air, catching it and then repeating the process, clearly having become bored with the topic. "Was that enough?" (2)

Naruto gave a simple nod and sat beside her, mind running through the information as he tried to figure out how to make the jutsu work. He grinned to himself, if you knew what hand seals did, then the techniques were really quite simple to create. The two sat in amiable silence for a bit more, before Naruto remembered what he had to talk to Hinata about. "Ah, uhm… Hinata-chan, I've got a c-rank mission coming up tomorrow. I'll probably be gone for around a month so…"

She turned to glare at him, byakugan active if the bulging veins around her eyes were any indication. Almost instantly she let out a low growl, and if he were anyone else, Naruto might've been intimidated by it.

"Hey, don't look at me like that, Hokage-sama gave us the mission, and there's a chance I'll get to kill some people! I haven't gotten to kill in over a year Hinata!" This seemed to strike a chord in her and she relented, if only just, and turned away from him. Naruto took this as a roughly positive sign and continued. He glowered at nothing in particular. "But man, dealing with duck-ass and pinky's gonna get really old, really fast. Kakashi-sensei expects me to protect them in combat."

Hinata gave a derisive snort at that, thinking it was silly and ridiculous to force a weapon to defend. "Don't let them bother you. They're weak, and thus meaningless, aren't they?" She was inwardly happy at his instant nod, and stood up abruptly. She gave him one of her pleasing, sadistic smiles and started to walk away. "You've got a mission to go on, go work on that jutsu, and when you come home again, you will spar with me again. Understand?" She didn't let him answer as she strolled away, and he wouldn't have given her one anyway.

Hinata smiled serenely as she strolled towards home, her weapon was secure, and his interaction with normal people wasn't detracting from his abilities. If she let herself be open, it would occur to her that she was proud of him for keeping his morals and his values, in spite of the persecution he received for them. Even so, she couldn't help the faint, pleased smile that slipped over her features as she walked home, at least until her

- (4)

Tazuna was an old man and a poor one at that, he had sunk his former fortune into the bridge-project. He'd have loved to buy the proper ninja for the mission, but by now… Well maybe Gatou wouldn't even send anyone after him.

Right. And maybe Inari would stop crying. Not forever, just a day, that wasn't really a lot to ask was it? The kid was crying all day, every day, and barely did anything else, it was so utterly pathetic…

The old man pushed away his jug of sake, he knew he'd had enough when he began badmouthing his grandson. The child had suffered through a horrid trauma, it wasn't his fault that he'd seen his father figure die in front of him. He was just being overly harsh on him again, if he was just understanding with the boy, and if he could just prove that the bridge would succeed, then the boy would be forced to open up again. Of course, that would rely on Gatou not sending ninja, or his own hired ninja not abandoning the mission when the enemy nin arrived.

Tazuna was not particularly hopeful with regard to the bridge. He slumped his head to the bar's surface and fumbled about, looking for the handful of bills he'd saved for this occasion. Finding the crumpled wad of cash, he slapped it onto the table and stumbled out into the night, deciding to track down a place to sleep.

The streets of Konoha twisted and turned as the drunk tried to walk them, and the old man swore a drunken storm more or less directed at the streets and anyone close enough to listen to him. Konoha was much warmer than his home island, so he wasn't surprised when he settled onto a stone park bench, his bedroll haphazardly spread beneath him. Guilt tugged at him as he attempted to drift to sleep, but he couldn't place why, finally the drink and despair pulled him into sleep at half past midnight.

A passing Manbun Sonmin (reminder, 1) wondered why the hobo was crying while he slept, until he recognized the man as Tazuna. For all of five seconds Manbun considered taking the man into his home to let him sleep at least on a couch, because after five seconds, the smell hit him.

-

By noon of the following day, Kakashi stood before his genin, orange book nowhere to be found, Naruto stood beside him, looking eager and deranged as was his habit. Sakura and Sasuke stood nearby, one hopeful while she clung to the other, and the other looking distasteful while he waited for the obviously hung-over bridge builder. Kakashi recognized the look of half-death in Tazuna's eyes and nodded calmly, gesturing towards the already open north gate.

Unlike everyone else, Kakashi had not spent the night mourning, thinking, or preparing, he had done some aggressive reading to put himself three days ahead of schedule. He just hoped he'd be able to hold out that long from reading _it_.

-

1: If ANYONE remembers Manbun Sonmin correctly, I will write any goddamn story they want. And I'll finish it. Has to be recognized within twenty four hours of posting to be valid, and only the first winner gets the prize. No Aidis you don't count.

2: Begin/End Islagatt's edition of self-insertion jutsu analysis and technique creation theater. Hinata's all-knowingness begins/ends at this point and she (will) return(s) to her original (to this story) personality.

3: I believe that's the spelling of the technique Orochimaru used in the forest of death to paralyze Sasuke and Sakura.

4: So it occurred to me, when people analyze a variety of people's opinions, they don't include the extras, or the bit characters. It should go without saying that I hold Wave country and the wave arc in nigh-idolitic regard, so this stands to reason.

Contention Note: Aidis keeps saying I'm using words too large for the purposes… I think that the words are good for their places… Also my own father always said 'if you don't know it, go look it up'. Sage man he is, good advices. However, you are the readers, who is right? Me or Aidis? Simple words or not simple words?

Aidis: ….. Hater…..

Islagatt: It wouldn't be fair, Aidis.


	9. Chapter 8

Author note: Also, with regard to stories getting posted and updated/altered lately, the pairings really shouldn't be the summary. That's just sad if that's the only redeeming and notable feature of your story. Oh yeah, and I've decided that there may once have been a god, but Masashi Kishimoto killed it if there was. He killed it by letting the filler go on for almost seventy episodes. No kind and just god could possibly allow that kind of insanity. This is the unbeta'd version. When Aidis finishes the real version please reread it.

At Any Cost

Chapter Eight

Ninjas fight in a whole other way-

-

_Yes, true love is a harem! True love shall triumph over all things, even our morals!_ Inner Sakura had been strange at times, but at present her behavior was very nearly alien to outer Sakura. All at once the pink-haired girl was amused, disgusted, aroused and mortified by her inner self's imagery and continued rant. She let out a quiet sigh while she tried not to let her frustrations show.

The whole process had begun when Naruto had kissed her in the training exercise/genin final. His display of affection (as her mind took it), was such a thing as she had not experienced, nor had she expected to. At the same time, since she'd never felt it, it wasn't enough to pull her affections totally from Sasuke. The result was that Sakura simultaneously loved Sasuke and Naruto. Inner Sakura, being the baser creature that she was, had no moral compunctions, nor the function of acceptance her dominant ego did.

Put simply, Sakura would settle for either boy showing interest in her. Inner Sakura wanted them both sating her every whim and want. Frequently.

Mercifully for all concerned, Inner Sakura was repressed by outer Sakura, if only barely. So she was, instead of throwing them both down and attempting to establish dominance over them, being amiable and sociable to all concerned. Of course she was terrified of Naruto's power, but there was the pressure of her inner self's intentions and desires counterbalancing, giving her a great deal more strength with which to conquer her fear. Naruto seemed quite happy with this and was animatedly chatting it up with the girl while poking fun at Sasuke in an attempt to draw him into speaking.

"So when did you start hanging out with Hinata anyway Naruto?" She looked over at the blonde and he made a show of tapping his chin in thought. Or she believed he was, he was actually trying to remember though.

He flashed back to it (1), sitting on the wall with Shino, and then two days later where he'd been. A smile crept over his face as he looked slightly wistful, Sakura's eyes clouded slightly, but the blonde was blissfully unaware. Sasuke looked up, curious now that there was something now besides himself being talked about. "Well… Sino had mentioned she was sweet on me, that's when I let him borrow my book-" he noticed Kakashi stiffen ahead of them, but decided he would defend his action later "- we were sitting on the hospital, just reading and talking about our teams and he mentioned she was stronger than she seemed. I didn't really know her so I just took his word for it. I meant to go meet her but I didn't really get around to it.

"Then we had our genin-test thing and you know how that went. Then our first mission… I was so pissed and worked up that I just had to do something, so I ran out into the forest to train. That's where I met her." He smiled again faintly, almost romantically. Sakura let a subtle twitch go unrestrained. "She was training out there already and I didn't know, she cut my throat open with a kunai I didn't even hear coming!"

Sakura gasped at this and Sasuke snickered. "Crappy ninja aren't you?" was all he asked, however the question was drowned out by Sakura's more panicked voice.

"She cut your throat open! How the hell did you survive that! What a bitch!" She was shocked by Naruto's enthusiastic nod and the broad smile, he let his killing joy flow completely unrestrained and Tazuna began to look a bit ill.

"I know, she's great… Of course it does help that I suck in ninja skills, but I'm strong enough to survive, so its okay." Sasuke seemed put-off by this, but couldn't deny the truth to it. "And I had a whole hell of a lot of Kyuubi's chakra stored up from putting up with you two all day, I kept tapping it during our missions for a bit more sanity. Well, anyway, so the wound closed up and we started sparring, and it got wild…" he gestured to the ruined scraps and ends of his clothes. Or rather where they had been. He'd removed the sleeves by this point completely and his orange pants were now just shorts. The new seams looked decidedly haphazard.

Sakura took in the gesture and associated it with his haggard appearance the day before giving a small nod before turning her eyes down. How the hell could she compete with a girl who was strong enough to fight him that well? Inner Sakura quickly dispelled her concerns.

Tazuna interrupted them, almost hesitantly. "D-did you say the Kyuubi? Why would you have the Kyuubi's power?"

Naruto glanced up at him and flashed a wide grin, reigning in his killing joy to not give away their position. He flared up his chakra and drew forth the red glow that shimmered just over his flesh, then banished it back into his circulatory structure. "I mean I was drawing on _my_ power. Kyuubi was sealed in me to save the village from it, since it's mine it's kind of like a bloodline limit."

The old man wasn't sure whether he should be grateful or afraid, he had feared that all Konoha-nin born after the attack could draw from its power, that would've been terrifying, especially when they found out about his lie. However, the idea of having the Kyuubi near him when they did inevitably find out wasn't much help either. But maybe he was lucky, the boy had evidenced a desire for combat, slaughter and the like. He wondered if that was the Kyuubi's influence or not. He thought about it for a few minutes and suppressed his fear.

"So the Kyuubi was sealed into you? I guess you must be really popular in the village then." The blonde only returned a blank stare, confusion coming to dominate the eyes and other features of the face.

"What are you talking about?"

Tazuna gave him a slightly frightened glance. "I just meant that you saved them from the demon by simple virtue of having been its jailor, do I have it confused somehow..?"

The blonde paused as they continued walking, a contemplative look crossing his features. "No… No you're right… I am the jailor… but." He shook his head, drawing down a chunk of red rage into his blood, and banishing the thoughts from his mind. He released a sigh and let his eyes slip shut. "Doesn't matter, Konoha's people are worthless. Weak. They do not matter." (2)

Tazuna gave the blonde another worried glance, but continued on, deciding not to ask any more. Sakura and Sasuke both gave him strange looks, and Kakashi gave a saddened sigh.

-

After the first day's walk, the group had settled into a light and peaceable slumber, well most of them had. Naruto didn't sleep that night, because he decided it wasn't worth the trouble, and because the old man's words were bothering him, no matter how much chakra he absorbed so he ended up on watch all night. He'd focused on his surroundings to stop from thinking about things, and for once he had achieved almost perfect zen with his surroundings. It was peaceful, in a frightening way, the lines separating things seemed to have melted away, but it was better being one with the woods than being one with himself.

In the morning, the group packed up and started to head out once more, this time in the same awkward silence as yesterday's discussion had left. Adding to it today was Naruto's thoughtful silence, and Sakura's worried air. Kakashi worried about them, his blonde student especially, he'd have loved to talk with Naruto and explain things about humans to him, but there wasn't time. He couldn't be distracted by such things on a mission like this.

Kakashi had sensed their observer or observers near the end of the previous day, and his instincts told him that in spite of the lack of observation, they'd be attacked while they walked today. Now, Hatake Kakashi had been a ninja for almost his entire life. He had been an ANBU captain, a jounin on a team of genin, student of the greatest ninja of all time, and many other things in his time, and one consistent theme and lesson he'd learned was to rely on your instincts. If your gut says be wary of attack, you will be wary.

He believed it wholeheartedly. Which is why he was not dropping back to talk Naruto out of his funk and back into the blind, raging machine of war that simply needed to be pointed and released. A part of him wondered just how much the propaganda was getting to him when he wanted a young boy to stop thinking and go back to being a mindless tool.

However, his contemplation was cut short when he saw the puddle, he traded places with a shadow clone out in the forest and suppressed his chakra, returning swiftly to observe or interfere as needed. He was just in time to catch the two ninja wrap a spiked chain around his clone and rip him apart. Perhaps that was bad though, because Naruto had a reaction first.

-

Naruto watched the chain descend, twist around his sensei and go taught. A strangled cry caught in his throat as he watched the chain pull tighter, tighter, bite through the clothes and flesh, and then tear through, ripping Kakashi neatly into three pieces that fell to earth. A flash went through his mind back, Iruka, pierced by kunai and shuriken, then Iruka's funeral, he saw it again, and this time he saw Kakashi in the open casket.

He didn't understand anything, suddenly. There was horrible pain in his chest, his stomach burned and ached like his flesh, Kyuubi's chakra seared into it in new and agonizing volume. A part of his mind heard someone scream out 'sensei' but he didn't acknowledge the sound, trapped inside his mind as he was.

-

Sasuke molded a bunshin rapidly from his place by Sakura's side and traded places with it, the two ninja ran forward, bypassing the genin while Naruto screamed out 'sensei' they were going for the man they were supposed to protect. He launched off a shuriken and followed it with a kunai, securing the chain to a tree and tugging back the offending ninja. Sasuke allowed himself to gauge them from their appearance, massive bracers on opposite hands of each other, the blade-claws likely poisoned, rebreathers dominating their faces and tattered, mildewed capes. Missing-nin most likely.

Rage of the irrational sort built up in Sasuke's mind, ignoring the burn of horrible chakra he threw himself forward and kicked both the attacking ninja in the face simultaneously, evading with the same motion their grasping claws. "SAKURA, take Tazuna and run for the village!" He didn't bother watching to see if she complied, the ninja had detached their chain from their gauntlets and were now rushing towards him, he flipped backwards to evade a low swipe of poisoned claws, then rushed forward in low as the claw swung through the air above his head, his kunai came up sliced through bone and flesh to destroy the joint of his enemy's elbow.

The ninja retaliated by spinning away and nailing him with a kick to the head, with which Sasuke moved, already forming seals as he kept his attention rapt on the ninja he faced. _Katon, Goukyakuu no Jutsu!_ The fireball shot forth, expanding and consuming, the oxygen in and around the ball of death was sucked in and given to the orange and red flames. He was never sure if people struck by it died of suffocation or their burns, but his money was the burns. The flames went out and he threw himself from his spot, expecting another attack. But the ninja was very decidedly dead, he smiled for a moment, before realizing he had no idea where the other ninja was.

Naruto's chakra caught up with him then, and he paled. "NARUTO!" He turned towards his remaining teammate, ready to assist.

-

The blonde was still stunned, unaware that he was crying, or that the sheer power of his chakra was making his tears burst into steam the second they rolled down his cheeks. He didn't notice Tazuna and Sakura backing away, appalled and terrified at the new tier of power he was calling upon now. He didn't even notice Sasuke's timely intervention or his fight with the other ninja.

He did however notice the claw that hit his back and crashed through his ribcage, wrapped around his heart and squeezed through the ruined mass of lung. Naruto noticed that, but he didn't care a damn bit. He stood and stepped forward, letting the organ-y mass be wrenched from his chest cavity, sticking to the chuunin's gauntlet. His torso regenerated rapidly and he turned, bleary eyed, to the ninja that had attacked him, his expression wasn't frightening and it wasn't calm or anything of the sort. Naruto's eyes were glazed and distant, as if he were confused or in a trance.

The ninja realized something was wrong, he tried to pull away but he was surrounded by the burning red chakra the boy was producing, and somehow he couldn't move out of it. Naruto's eyes lost their glaze and focused once more upon his enemy, lacking the simple, dim-witted joy they so oft held, now in them was naught but rage, a rage that the chuunin had absolutely no desire to witness. He wasn't going to get an option though.

"**I'LL KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO SENSEI!**" Naruto screamed in horrid agony as he pulled the red chakra into himself, condensing it and soaking it up. When it finished Sasuke was floating in the air, delivering a fireball, and Naruto was encased in an opaque bodysuit of red chakra. He charged forward, the other ninja flipped back, desperate suddenly to get away from his foe, but Naruto was there when he landed, a punch waiting for him and throwing him further away back into a tree. The chuunin hit the tree and swung around it, springing off from the trunk towards the blonde with his claw outstretched, bent on killing the brat if that was all.

His fist met the claw and crashed through it, the metal case shattering and the bone and flesh shredding away from the chakra as Naruto's fist continued forwards. The nin leapt away again and clutched his stump, shrieking in maddening pain, unable to fight now, but Naruto did not relent. He stepped forward again and slammed his other fist through the nin's shoulder, the muscle and flesh frayed and scattered from the energy, the bone ground away and the remains of his other arm fell to the ground, he drew his fist down and let the unmaking of his opponent continue until he'd stripped away the entire right edge of his body.

Finished for the moment he withdrew. His chakra shifted and unraveled from him, gathering into his hand with a red intensity that was only analogous to a star. The hand came back, and Naruto's mind was silent, mute, no cackling, no crying no thoughts, just the impending kill. For the second time in his life Naruto had achieved total zen, he was the fiery chakra in his hand and his enemy to be hit, chakra flooded his body just before he slammed the fire in his palm into the other man's stomach.

"Akki Chishichuusha" The light slowly dwindled, and faded from Naruto's hand. The other ninja's scream had ended when his throat exploded outwards in a spray of gore that spattered Naruto's face. The light was gone and Naruto's eyes softened, back to a happy, sated feeling. He turned and moved back towards where the group had been when he had turned to destroy his attacker. What he saw shocked him. "K-kakashi-sensei!"

The jounin turned to him from the other two genin and their client. He favored his remaining student with an eye-smile, and waved easily. "Yo!"

Naruto collapsed then and there, shock, strain and chakra overdose combining to make a hell of a pain in his head.

-

Much later on the group sat in another small camp, Kakashi and Tazuna were the only two awake since it was Kakashi's watch first, and Naruto was still out like a light. It was rather surprising to Kakashi, who had expected him to be on his feet again rather quickly, his steady heartbeat and overall fine condition assured him the poison wasn't an issue, so it had to simply be the chakra overdose. He wondered just how much he had drawn from the fox, but there would be time for that later.

The Cyclops fixed his eye on the bridge builder, and the eye narrowed ever so slightly. Tazuna gulped despite himself and inched away, stopping when the jounin's voice reached him. "Tazuna-san, would happen to have any idea why a ninja was attacking you today?"

"Ehh… well that is…" He coughed lightly into his fist and then drew himself up to look at his 'foe'. "They were probably hired by Gatou to kill me." Kakashi's eye showed the slightest hint of widening.

"Gatou the wealthy shipping magnate?" The bridge builder nodded. "Ah. Well, let it never be said you have low taste in enemies, Tazuna-san." He motioned for Tazuna to continue.

The old man nodded slowly and looked to the ground. "He came to our country several years ago and started to buy up or chase out of business all of the trading companies. What wouldn't be bought off, he'd intimidate with hired thugs. Once he had a monopoly he started to drain out all the wealth of the country. We're building a bridge so we don't have to rely on his shipping fleet, obviously that doesn't sit too well with him…"

Kakashi nodded slowly. "So you knew he was likely to hire ninja to go after you, why didn't you give an accurate assessment of the risks? We might not be able to handle this kind of threat."

"Well, Wave is super-poor right now, we don't have the money to hire the proper mission ranking. Besides, your genin did a super-awesome job on those last ninja to fight us, and you weren't even fighting!" Tazuna had a guilt-trip ready if this didn't work, but he didn't know if it would be necessary.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed again. "Tazuna, the next fight will have a ninja likely equal to my skill. I don't know if we're going to do this, I will talk to my genin in the morning, go to sleep now." Tazuna hesitated slightly, Kakashi noticed and bellowed at him. "NOW!" The old man made a small sound and burrowed into his sleeping roll while the jounin massaged his temples.

_Why can't my life ever be simple?_

-

End Chapter Eight At Any Cost

1: No I won't do another flashback, if you need to recall this it's a few chapters back.

2: Naruto does have wild personality swings doesn't he? I attribute it to poorly suppressed stress.

Akki Chishichuusha: A hypothetical approach to a jutsu. Loosely translated it means Evil Demon Lethal Injection. I used to call it Youkai Chakra Kyouin, until I realized I had no idea what that meant, so I used animelab's dictionary, and here you have it. More or less it puts foreign chakra into the inner coils, and either burns them out or makes them tear themselves apart, if chakra phagocytes exist.

Author Note: Well… Naruto wasn't really so psycho was he? What's up with all these goings on anyway? Why does Tazuna not use the super- thing as much? Well actually that's because it's a pain to write. Anyway, I'm really enjoying writing this, even if my fight scenes suck, so I hope you're all enjoying it!


	10. Chapter 9

Author note: I am proven wrong, only sixty three point one five seven eight nine four seven three six eight four infinite non-repeating percent of Naruto / Tayuya fics are good. Conversely that's a hell of a percentage versus say… Naruto / Shizune, which is at twenty percent by my estimation or Naruto / Sakura which has thirty one pages of fiction as of 11:35 PM central US time on October second, and I promise has precious few gems of legibility. I'd be shocked if it ended up with an approximate thirteen point one-six infinite repeating percentage. So, conjecture- all Naruto / Tayuya stories are good, false. Altered theory based on observations- an inordinate number of Naruto / Tayuya stories are exceedingly well-written, I think this is correct.

Aidis: -- ……. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ……cough cough……

Islagatt: What? What's so funny about that?

At Any Cost

Chapter Nine

-But there's nothing I can do about it.

OOOOOOOOOO

Haku dropped from the trees to inspect the bodies of the Demon Brothers. The androgynous child gave a sympathetic wince to the nearly-incinerated remains of Sasuke's foe, if the wounds and effects were anything to go by, this one had been defeated by a skilled ninja, one with better speed and agility than outright strength. A slight nod of the ninja's masked face and a delicate, pale hand came forth to place a body-destroying note on the remains.

Turning, Haku looked upon the bloody, gore-soaked area around the other ninja. The body itself was torn and ruined already, its eyes were rolled back and dead already, and the copious amount of blood made the ninja wonder whether the leaf genin had been very poorly skilled, or just frightening in thoroughness and sadism. For a moment, (s)he cursed the poor information gathering-network of the mist, true that neither (s)he nor Zabuza were a part of the mist anymore, but they still had informants among their ranks.

For example, they knew that presently the copy-ninja had taken a genin cell, and that only his genin cell and himself were on the guarding mission with Tazuna. And though Haku knew of the copy-ninja only by reputation, the brutal and messy slaughter of the demon brother did not seem to fit in with his modus operendi. Kakashi's genin must be exceptional, (s)he reasoned.

_And completely insane_, the ninja added as an afterthought. Another body-destruction tag and a flash of chakra were left behind as Haku departed the scene.

The battered corpses sizzled, stored chakra filtered through their bodies and shifted the remaining fluid's Ph values wildly. In less than a second the bodies were completely denatured and unusable for any conceivable purpose. Just to make sure though, the tags then flared briefly and blasted the bodies apart.

-

Momochi Zabuza relaxed in the overstuffed armchair (read: waited for an assassination attempt in a ratty old couch) with his faithful sword by his side. Kubikiri Houcho, the head-slicing cleaver, his signature weapon. He was one of the great and glorious Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, albeit one of the weakest ones (2). Zabuza was, as he had trained his impromptu apprentice to be, a superb ninja. That is to say, his skill in battle was not terrifying and imposing, save for the talent of evading detection and misdirecting defenders.

Thus, Zabuza looked upon his massive knife-sword (A1) and saw what he saw when looking at Haku. He saw a tool. A means to an end, the end always being the mission, and like any tool, the job could be done without it. His lack of reverence for the blade is what had alienated himself from the others of the Swordsmen, who by and large held their swords to be their most precious possessions at least, and their most beloved companions at most. Of course, if tools were a means to an end, and ninja were tools, where did that place Zabuza? He had no purpose, no end in sight.

Though he would never tell anyone- definitely including himself, Zabuza's purpose in life was to live and train Haku to the point where the gender-confused hijutsu user could go out on his/her own and find a meaning in life beyond serving Zabuza. In a fascinating twist of fate and mental conditioning, Zabuza was living for Haku, and Haku lived for Zabuza. Like a moebius strip (3).

As the devil of the hidden mist failed to make these leaps of logic, limited as they were, he became distinctly aware of the presence rushing towards him. His/her presence in the room was forewarned by a surge of chakra and an overall chilling effect (s)he had on the room. Zabuza's attention remained fixedly on nothing, there was a slight twitch in his hand that his weapon interpreted to mean (s)he was to speak.

"The Demon Brothers are dead, Zabuza-sama." The ninja began.

Zabuza twitched slightly, he had known of course, but they were still just baby devils, it wasn't pleasant to know they were dead. "Kakashi then?"

There was a slight disturbance in the air as Haku shook his/her head. "No. It looked like two genin killed them. One was dead by fire-jutsu with a kunai in his elbow, the other one…"

The devil tapped the armrest of the couch absently.

"The other one's arm was gone to the elbow, his other side was frayed apart from the shoulder down, his throat had exploded and there were chakra burns over his inner coils." Haku concluded quietly. Zabuza nodded slowly and leaned back, hearing the footsteps of his current employer.

The doors opened, they tried to burst open but Gatou had neither the strength nor the energy for such an action, so he advanced 'menacingly' towards the nuke-nin. "Your ninja have failed! What kind of devil are you anyways?! You let the target go! He can't be allowed to finish that bridge!"

The eyebrow-less former jounin twitched in minor annoyance. His beady eyes focused on the shipping magnate's disproportionate, tiny-eyed head and he felt the linen bandages shift as he spoke through them, his voice having long since overcome the natural muffling effect of them. "You don't need to remind me of the mission. I am Momochi Zabuza, Devil of the Hidden Mist, when I accept a job, it gets done." The nin reached back and slipped his hand around his cleaver's handle, bringing it forward in a neat, rapid, chopping motion that ended just in front of Gatou's face. "Next time I will fight them myself, and I will take that man's head with this little knife right here. Now get out."

The self-proclaimed devil waited until the vile little man ran, spluttering away before allowing himself to laugh at him. He stood up and slipped his sword over his back. A grin that he couldn't suppress dominated his features as he mused silently. _Hatake Kakashi, huh? Life never does get dull, does it?_

-

On the fourth day of travel towards Wave country, Naruto was looking decidedly unhappy. This was abnormal and difficult to deal with for everyone else who had thought he was impossible to faze, however, Kakashi's 'death' and Naruto's subsequent explosion of power were making Naruto reassess his sensei's value to him. Especially when Kakashi failed to apologize for letting them all believe he was dead.

Further agitating the unstable blonde was the growing voice of his tenant, apparently his joy had been keeping the beast muted for years and now his melancholy and outrage were allowing it a foothold in his thoughts. Being taunted and disturbed by the fox though had prompted Naruto to respond in kind, and he stepped up his tortures of the demonic being in him. He had his hands nigh-constantly locked in the boar seal to suppress his chakra, Kakashi noticed a distinct resemblance between Naruto and a wide variety of untested and armed explosive devices. The jounin envisioned his angel and devil selves wearing white lab coats and placing bets on whether the world would end when he exploded (1).

The not-as-old-as-he-seemed Hatake glanced over to their client, deigning to lower his book for a moment, before carefully placing it away in his equipment pouch. He'd have loved to keep reading, but his senses were all on high alert now, and he couldn't focus properly on his book with his senses all fired up (well at least not in polite company). The jounin gave a depressed sigh and pointedly ignored the killing intent being directed at him.

Kakashi was an elite jounin, former commander of Leaf's special forces division ANBU, suffice it to say he was a good ninja. As he had learned long ago, you were always a better ninja subconsciously than consciously, so he trusted his gut about when his senses should be alert. As it was, he was not disappointed.

Not more than five minutes after he put the book away he heard a faint rising and falling whistling sound. "EVERYONE DOWN!" Sasuke and the Jounin both immediately dove to the ground, Sakura dove to the ground and Naruto was cloven in twain by the thrown sword, apparently unconcerned by the body it cut through, the blade shifted and arced upwards, landing in a tree where its owner appeared soon after. The pieces of Naruto burst into smoke, revealing it to have been a kage bunshin.

Zabuza, standing on the handle of his blade, with his shirt inexplicably removed,

was about to launch into a frightening introduction statement when the forest exploded behind him. He threw himself forward instantly, dragging his kubikiri houcho just as he flew away from the unraveling tree behind him. He came to rest on another tree branch across the clearing from Naruto and glared fiercely at him, keeping half an eye to the jounin on the ground still. The blonde, for his part, was just standing on his branch with his burning red aura hanging centimeters from his flesh, all in all, a minimal level of the fox's chakra for him.

The genin cell and client on the ground quickly lifted themselves up from the ground, Kakashi looking towards Naruto. "Get down here!" The jounin, not bothering to observe his charge's indignant glare, shifted his single eye to the enemy ninja. "Momochi Zabuza, of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, A-rank missing nin known as the Devil of the Hidden Mist-" Naruto laughed at the preposterous label, Kakashi ignored him, "-I don't suppose that you're here to share your cosmetic secrets of hair-spiking with my student?"

Zabuza gave a cold laugh and looked back at the copy ninja. "No, sadly not, Sharingan Kakashi, Konoha's former ANBU commander, special jounin. I'm here for the old man, so why don't you all just step aside politely and let me get at him?" Zabuza rolled a shoulder back and set his cleaver on his shoulder in a lazy fashion.

The jounin motioned for his two other genin to protect Tazuna while his right hand lifted up the hitai-ate covering his left eye. Both eyes narrowed against the other jounin. "I'm afraid I can't do that Zabuza-san, you see we're under contract to defend him, and we really can't back down from such a task. It'd ruin my reputation."

Naruto looked at Kakashi, shocked, he was the only one of their team who could see it from their positions, but he saw Kakashi reveal his Sharingan. Kakashi had revealed to Naruto what it was, and what it could do before, when they had trained, and the blonde had been in awe at the time, however he'd never seen it as his meager skills never prompted a demonstration in their sparring. He looked back to Zabuza and realized he had to be strong, something in his heart twinged just a bit, sending a feeling of green into his mind. He had no idea what it was but a snarl forced itself onto his features as he shot forward the same instant Zabuza disappeared into the mist.

"Already revealing your Sharingan, Kakashi? I'm flattered, but trump cards shouldn't be displayed so casually…" He chuckled from all directions at once. This seemed to further enrage Naruto who was already having issues. This was not a good day to be a blonde leaf-genin. "Eight targets, heart, lungs, liver, jugular, clavicle, carotid, brain, and spine… Where shall I strike?"

Kakashi twitched the mist was laden with chakra and he couldn't accurately sense the other nin, damn! Sasuke's hand tightened around his kunai's grip, he could handle this bastard, he was an Uchiha, damnit! Itachi wouldn't put up with some punk-ass swordsman of the mist! Sakura forced herself to stop shaking, she refused to let either boy see her frightened by the intimidating ninja's speech. Naruto simply seethed, the enemy was playing with them. PLAYING!

As each Konoha nin went through their own thought process, Zabuza appeared, sword poised to strike at his target, forgotten in the midst of main characters. The two genin he had bypassed turned in agonizing slowness to see him, Kakashi was there in a blink, a kunai held to Zabuza's throat. "Now Zabuza, you can't expect to get at my client that easily now can you?"

The bandaged man snickered slightly as Sakura called out to her teacher, too late, as the blade swept around and clove through both bodies, water splashing as the mizu bunshin released. Kakashi too burst into water and appeared behind the surprised jounin, a kunai in hand already. _Did he copy it so quickly? _The cleaver lashed around in a wide, angry arc that made Kakashi step back before lunging forward to exploit the other nin's wide-open stance after the wild swing.

Zabuza anticipated it, letting the cleaver swing into the ground before altering his grip on it and kicking off against the jounin brutally. Kakashi only had time to cross his arms in a guarding posture before he was thrown back onto the river. The copy-nin looked up just as he realized what was going on, and Zabuza locked him into a- "Suirou no Jutsu."

"GET TAZUNA AND RUN!" The jounin shouted to his team, shocked when he saw Naruto drawing near, red aura still blazing. "Naruto! Forget about me, just get out of here, he'll kill you!"

-

"SHUT UP!" The blonde bit back, fixing a blue-eyed stare against the mist-nin and narrowing his eyes. "I don't care about you Kakashi, all I want is to fight. All I need is to fight, and he is stronger than you, so FIGHT ME!" Naruto's aura doubled instantly as he challenged the nukenin, making the other pause before laughing at him.

"You should listen to your teacher, kid, but if you want to die so badly, then I can't help but oblige you. You got spunk though, I'll give you that…" The ninja lifted a hand in a half seal and a mizu bunshin rose from the river, stepping out onto the land as Naruto grinned.

_Snake, ox, bird…_ The blonde's eyes snapped open as his chakra shaped and projected outwards in long tendrils… "Shokushu no Jutsu!" (5) Six of the red chakra-tentacles grew out from the blonde's back and wagged back and forth in the air. Naruto grinned savagely and lashed one of them straight forward, it punched through the advancing clone and caused it to explode into steam.

Zabuza arched where his eyebrow would've been, and formed seven more water-clones, all of which shot forward instantly with their cleavers drawn, Naruto spun in place as he watched their advance and lashed out with the tentacles again, the proto-kaiten was almost successful but for the fact it left the blonde sick to his stomach. He growled and lashed forward with his tentacles again, eyes filled with rage. "Don't jerk me around, you bare-chested bondage freak!" Team seven and their opponent deadpanned at the remark. "FIGHT ME! Akki Chishichuusha!" the tentacles shimmered in the air as they approached and Zabuza had a moment to contemplate what was happening.

One, he was clearly facing the demon-vessel of the Kyuubi. Two, said vessel sucked as a ninja, but was awesome in terms of raw power. Three, he wasn't using any known techniques, but rather those of his own creation. Four, he really didn't want any tentacle, male or female, going into his body. Five, Evil demon lethal injection sounded really unpleasant. A lot more so than say… the lightning edge.

Zabuza broke his hold on the water prison and dodged away from the lashing whips of chakra. Kakashi took the chance and burst free from his prison turning towards the enemy to challenge him, he was stopped from this when a tentacle slapped aside his first kunai, and a second batted him away entirely with a war cry from the blonde. Stunned at the action, Kakashi allowed himself to be thrown back towards his team and their client, whereupon reaching he returned his hitai-ate to its proper place to conserve chakra.

"Sensei, what about Naruto? Can't you help him?" Kakashi winced as he looked at Sakura and shook his head.

"He won't let me, and neither of you should try, he'll make it necessary for me to kill him."

Sasuke was just staring at his teammate as he rushed forward blindly at his opponent, he wasn't a ninja by any stretch of course, but his efforts were successful…

-

A Zabuza clone launched his cleaver with a healthy spin on it, the blade-shaped chakra-water sliced through the tentacles, but a moment later they lashed forward again, skewering the clone and the tree he stood on. Zabuza growled and launched a volley of shuriken, his own massive cleaver following the spinning stars in flight. The blonde looked up to see the varieties of death flying towards him and cranked up his chakra output, sacrificing his tentacles into the vague mass of invisible energy he threw forwards. The shuriken halted as if they had struck a wall, but the cleaver slowed and lost altitude and only just clattered to the ground before him.

With a silent stream of profanities, Zabuza launched himself forwards again, chakra strings yanking his cleaver to him while the blonde's defenses were down. Naruto hadn't even a moment to process the charge before one of his arms was sliced cleanly off at the shoulder with a scream of actual pain, the blonde threw himself aside. Zabuza hefted the blade again, the blonde's arm was gone, he couldn't do jutsu anymore.

The nukenin turned to face the others of the genin cell when he heard the voice behind him. The voice that wasn't anything like human anymore.

-

_Augh, fuck this HURTS! Why does this actually hurt?! _The blonde was screaming in his mind. _It isn't fun, bastard is denying me my only fun!_ He felt his body move on the ground, armless as it was, red saturated the air and held back the blood. His eyes widened, pupils shrank to tiny pinpricks as he called inside. _FOX! LET ME HAVE FUN IN THIS GAME!_

Now Naruto never asked for anything, but this was as close to synergy as the two would ever get, and even then it was merely non-violent agreement. He growled, feeling suddenly different as he lay on the ground, and glared at the retreating man. There was a unique sensation as his arm rebuilt, but it lacked that familiar and pleasurable insanity. He glowered again at the retreating ninja and snapped.

"**Shokushu no jutsu, Akki Chishichuusha!**" The stump of his reforming right arm shotgunned forward in a dozen different trajectories, trails of red sizzling as the hateful energy looked for something it could kill… or infect. Zabuza shot away from the spot, three tentacles went after him and ended up impaling trees as he stopped for a brief second at each. Naruto wrenched his stump, now almost complete to the elbow again, back before throwing his tentacles forward again. The other ninja slapped aside the offending tentacle with the flat of his blade, the wrenching motion pulling the other tentacles away and yanking the blonde forcefully to one side.

Zabuza leapt forward, determined to take advantage of the other shinobi's momentary lapse, his sword rose up and began to descend in a messy, brutal arc that would cleave his foe in twain. With a dawning feeling, one which he could not place, the chakra Naruto was drawing in flickered, became unstable and swelled incredibly, he realized with disgust that this was fear. Damnit. He hadn't enjoyed his last fight…

-

Sakura shrieked in horror, watching the blade, expecting her newest crush to soon receive wounds she wasn't entirely sure he could recover from. Her sensei, she saw out of the corner of her eye, was already moving, kunai in his hands and ready to be launched, his student's reaction be damned. The knife flew through the air and the force threw off the direction of the cleaving blade, the strike never fell, and the missing-nin unceremoniously fell into a heap after the diverted assault.

Kakashi blinked slowly as the entire field seemed to freeze in that instant. As he strained to take in the scene, his Sharingan discovered precisely what had happened, and guided his normal eye to the barely visible needles jutting from the nukenin's neck. His eyes lifted up to scan the surroundings for the weapons source, and settled on a masked and robed ninja who he swore had not been there a moment ago. He lifted a hand and covered up his Sharingan eye again with the hitai ate, unsure when he had uncovered it again, and looked to his other student.

"Naruto, your fight is over now." There was a visible flinch from the genin just before the fiery red aura disappeared. The blonde's freshly finished arm curled and tensed into a tight fist, Kakashi would have to speak to him later. "You are a mist hunter-nin?" The other ninja nodded calmly.

"Correct. I thank you for making my job easier, but I had to kill him myself, you understa-"

"If you interfere… I'll kill you…" The blonde coughed up blood, shocked by its appearance after his declaration. He grit his teeth together, his bare arm reaching towards his weapons pouch, new muscle screaming in protest. The masked ninja turned to regard the blonde with apparent curiosity, and was matched by frank and unmasked rage. "Don't interfere… in my fights ever again…" A kunai slipped into his hand, seemingly of its own volition, and the masked ninja seemed to decide he was no longer a threat.

The ninja looked back to Kakashi as (s)he lifted the ninja over his/her shoulder stating firmly "I shall take my leave of you now," while snatching up the sword. (S)He promptly blurred away, leaving a rather stunned team seven to resume their trip. No amount of prodding this time drew Naruto out of the funk he had slipped into. (4)

OOOOOOOO

Author Note: And seriously, am I the only one disturbed by the fact that the Naruto and Hanabi character filter has more stories than the Naruto and Tayuya one? I mean seriously, Shokushu Bakemono that I hold to be an entirely possible and ultimately desirable self, I'm not one to judge. It still seems wrong though y'know?

And while we're not on the subject, why aren't there any stories involving Yuugito? Y'know, Yuugito, the jinchuuriki for the nibi no nekomata? Kumo-nin? She's in the manga already, and while I don't read it, I am surprised that people do not write about her.

Aidis: Wow…. I come off the chapter to find the rant resumed like it never ended. I had to stop and laugh before I read the whole thing.

Islagatt: Uhm… I didn't end the rant… I wrote the author's notes first and used them as a motivation to finish the content… (Author laughs sheepishly)

1: For those who get it, good for you. For those who don't, the scientists who designed the atomic bomb were actually doing this while waiting for the bomb to get dropped. I fancy one scientist ate very well that night.

2: Here is my theory: Zabuza was defeated by Kakashi, who does have a wonderful reputation and a well-known name, but Kakashi is 'the copy-nin' and Zabuza was one of 'the seven swordsmen of the mist' you see? Longer title. Longer titles mean more fame, more fame means more kills in more places, so the seven swordsmen should each and individually be stronger than Kakashi. But Zabuza was even…ish with Kakashi. So he must be the weakest of the seven. I'd offer to open this to debate, but the last time I said something like that, I got five reviews (throughout the whole story) with JUST a damn correction. However, if it takes more than a sentence, feel free to protest.

3: Moebius strip, I think that's spelled right, but just in case it's a hypothetical object, an object (usually a piece of paper in the shape of the infinity symbol) with only one side. Or another word for 'plot hole' or 'paradox'. Take your pick on the last part.

4: Wave arc plus AAC Naruto equals near-angst. I apologize for this unforeseen circumstance.

5: Loosely translated, tentacle technique. Ah the depth of perversion in my heart…

A1: knife-sword-cleaver-sharpened metal on a stick-thing

Author Note 2: I also wish to apologize if things begin to move faster than they should or have before, but I've got the sequel and the sequel to that already planned and I so desperately want to write them!


	11. Chapter 10

Author Note: I have a question for everyone. When I read a new story (new to me but already like seven plus chapters into it for the author) I read the author notes in the first chapter and skim the ones in the last posted chapter. Conversely if I'm reading a story from when it starts onward, I'll read all the author notes. Is this normal? Do you all do the same? If you don't read the note, how would you know the questions unless (Islagatt's head explodes at this moment).

Ohh… t3h suckage…

Aidis: And now we have the pleasure of reading a chapter written by a headless author!

At Any Cost

Chapter Ten

All fun and games 'til someone loses a limb.

-

Standing on a sandy, frigidly cold beach of Wave country's primary archipelago, a blonde ninja glared harshly at the water before him. The damp sand stretching behind him made it evident the tide was out at that particular moment, and the ninja's own dampness suggested he'd been standing in the water when it was at high tide. This was not entirely correct, but it was a similar idea…

With a strangled sound of exhaustion and pain, Naruto reached deeply into his chakra reserves, into the Kyuubi's reserves, and drew it out. The seal over his stomach ejected the demon's energy, throwing it into the air around the blonde before it turned and fell back over his form in a potent aura. Narrowing his eyes against the pain, he pushed the chakra into the water and stepped forward.

-

Three days before that, Tazuna had led the party forward at a sedate pace. For some this would have been a challenging pace for a pleasant walk, but the four behind him were ninja, even if the jounin was a bit tired and the angsting blonde was burned out this pace was meaningless to them. The old man himself was in excellent physical condition thanks to his years of strenuous physical labor, even now in his graying twilight, he was super-fit.

He paused as they walked, and the ninja halted with him, allowing him to explain his sudden hesitation and the outstretched arm indicating the hillock just ahead. "We're not far from the boat now, once we're aboard we all need to be super-quiet or we might get heard. I'm not worried at this point but if Gatou catches my friend there, he'll be in super-trouble." The ninja, though still twitching at the overused out-of-style vernacular, nodded resolutely. Naruto just ignored him. (A1)

The group advanced and the thickening mist seemed to swallow the group up as they descended the other side of the hill, halfway down the ground became sand, and the slope eased off. Tazuna felt the shift and instinctively his steps became lighter, to the point where Sakura and Naruto had a hard time hearing them anymore. Kakashi himself was inwardly impressed by the old man's ability at silence. Although, he chalked it up to having lived in the mist most of his life and having to hunt mostly by sound.

He'd have been half-right in that assessment, as it was, Tazuna stepped quietly and quickly mostly because ships belonging to Gatou had, since first arriving, stolen and kidnapped things and people from shore when they heard them, or just killed people. The incidents were casually written off as hunting accidents at first, the old man's fists curled as he recalled those times, the men found guilty of involvement in those cases had been disbanded from their roles, some even punished openly.

As Gatou's stranglehold on the Wave economy grew though, the incidents took a new tone, now being labeled as terrorist acts against his property, and asserted that his men were doing proper work in defending his assets. Those involved were either ignored, or praised lavishly. It had gotten such that even old men like himself now knew how to silently walk on the sand and hide from sailors, they had to, there were no options. In a sadistic and slightly ironic way though, it had helped the survivors of Wave.

His reverie was cut short when he heard the lapping water against a wooden hull. Frowning slightly, he recognized it was still too far from shore, he couldn't be sure if it was his accomplice or not yet. He reached into a pocket and threw one, then two, then three stones into the water. After a moment, there was sound of a stone hitting the sand, then a second, then a third. Sakura looked up at the bridge builder with confusion in her eyes and prodded him lightly.

"Uhm, Tazuna-san, what are you doing?" The old man looked back at her before deciding whether to answer or not.

With a slight shrug he decided there was no reason not to enlighten her, and began his tale. "Well, when we hear a boat out on the water, we don't know if it's Gatou's or a villager's, so we throw out stones to attract attention. Since we have to be super-cautious on shore nowadays, if we don't hear answering stones from the boat, we get to cover before the sailors find us. If the boat answers with more stones, then it's a villager and all is clear." He stepped into the sea-water until it was up to his shins and then reached out to the boat that came up to the shore. He motioned for the ninja to clamber aboard and they complied swiftly, the air of danger compelling them to use all their skills in silence. Even the blonde, in spite of his sullen state and horrid skills, was soft enough to be just heard as he boarded.

Making sure they were aboard safely, the old man pushed the boat back out into the water and swung himself onto one of the benches, seemingly unbothered by the un-seasonal chill in the air and his soaked legs. Tazuna shifted in his seat as the boat eased away from shore, regarding the man at the engine with a cautious look.

The other man seemed to catch the unspoken questions and raised a hand defensively. "We're going to swing by the cove for a few hours, when it's dark we'll make a run for one of the abandoned ports." The old man nodded slowly and turned forward again.

-

The cove was an out-of-the-way little bay, some ways into the mainland's marsh-forest without having gotten too far from the sea. They hadn't been there long when the noontime sun had scattered the mists. Naruto was sleeping now, having become bored by his brooding and being angry with his tenant. Sakura and Sasuke were keeping alert while their sensei seemed as focused as ever on his book. Seeing how little was going on, Sasuke decided to gather more information.

"Tazuna-san, you said the shores were dangerous now, because of Gatou's sailors. What did you mean by that?" The bridge builder looked up at him, startled from his rice ball lunch, he considered the question while he munched on the sticky meal and finally, with a swallow and a long draught from a jug that was definitely not liquor, he answered.

"Gatou's people are super-twisted. When they first started around here, they would steal from people on the shores, threaten them with spears 'n' such. After a while though, they started kidnapping people and killing them where they were found on the shores…" He closed his eyes for a long moment. And then his accomplice picked up the story.

"A lot of men and women and even some children vanished, we think they're being used for one purpose or another on the ships, slave-labor you know. There's nothing we can do about it though… People who try to investigate or ask questions get rounded up and stuck in corporate prisons." The younger man looked to the bridge builder, who seemed very small at that moment, the lines in his face were deep and his eyes were distant, unfocused. Sasuke felt something in him twist as he heard about what Gatou was doing to this country and a dark look passed over his face.

Sakura herself was distraught over the actions, though she seemed more horrified and less righteously indignant than her crush. She noticed, on some level that Naruto had cracked open an eye and listened to the story, though he showed no reaction. Kakashi was of a similar state to Naruto, simply reading his book, although the latter for having witnessed worse atrocities many times over. The blonde had no real excuse besides his general disdain for human life.

Uchiha Sasuke found himself deciding then and there hat he actually hated Gatou and his bastards far more than he hated his brother. When he realized it, he verged on scolding himself before thinking better of it. (1)

-

The boat slipped forward through the night, the water surrounding them was not shrouded by the mists, but instead was inky black, like oil. The gibbous moon overhead shone pale light over the flow, but a slight genjutsu had them covered from sight. Soon enough the abandoned pier loomed before them and Kakashi released his genjutsu. He took in the tattered and broken boats, still fettered to the rotten wood like so many leaches, although they looked as dead as their host in this case.

Tazuna hated seeing the abandoned piers, because he knew the people who had owned the remaining boats. He missed those people, and he hated the guilty thankfulness he felt whenever he thought about their being gone. If they had been here, then the foodstuffs they had would never have been enough, they were nearly at the malnutrition point already and if there were any more mouths to feed the village would begin to starve within a year. He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fists, pushing those thoughts away as they bid their driver farewell and marched down the pier towards his home.

His anguish didn't go unnoticed of course, Uchiha Sasuke, rapidly forgetting about Itachi, felt his ire stirred into a greater blaze by the obvious pain this old man was suffering. Empathy wasn't something Sasuke was used to indulging in, but the somewhat obsessive ninja had never been willing to do anything halfway. Kakashi seemed to notice the way his fists were tightening, this piqued his curiosity primarily because he had expected Sakura to be the only one actually affected by the suffering of Wave country, but apparently Sasuke was still very humane.

Hatake Kakashi wasn't sure whether to dissuade the boy for his own sake or encourage him for the village's. (2)

The beach fell away behind the group, advancing as they were in the dead of night, there should have been some problem being silent. However, being four ninja and a grizzled old man used to having to move about in darkness, there weren't any real issues. The tension in the air however, slew any brewing thoughts of conversation any might have had, and the only sounds were Tazuna's (3) clamorous footfalls and the distant, ever fading sound of the water lapping against the sandy shores.

'Ere long lights came into view, their soft luminescence at first mere blobs, Naruto stared at them for longer than the rest of the group and they were considerably closer before the light cast enough ambience for him to realize it was a home. Obviously a home waiting for someone to arrive, the blonde ninja figured that this was probably where they were going to. He was, however, proven wrong when they passed by the house a thirty-something woman, whose face seemed ten years older and whose eyes didn't seem to focus right, waved absently at Tazuna before she resumed her silent staring.

The old man waved back, but by the time he did she was no longer looking at them. He sighed heavily and continued on. Sakura looked at the woman confusedly and then looked back to their charge. "Uhm, Tazuna-san, who was that woman?"

The old man grimaced slightly, he hated talking about the people he knew in Wave… Predicting the cowardice in his heart and bones, he reached into his vest pocket, withdrawing a beaten, oxidized flask and brought it to his lips. "Megumi, she and her husband married a while back, but after Gatou's men arrived he disappeared." Another draught and the chemical courage burned its way down his gullet, he slipped it away, deciding he was sufficiently numb for the telling. "They were deeply in love, seemed like they were on the trend upwards too, sweethearts as children, throughout most of their youths. Even so they took the time to make sure that they were stable enough for a family, and making sure the other was the right one them. Touching and mature huh?"

Sasuke grimaced, he knew where this was going and he really didn't want to listen to it, he wished that he himself had a little flask of liquor. Not that there wasn't plenty in the estate left…

"He went out to fish one day, and no one ever saw him again. Just vanished into the mist. They never even found his boat, so Megumi stands there every night, waiting for him. It's been almost a year now… She doesn't really have much left in her." He shook his head and pulled his hat forward a bit. Sakura was openly crying at this, the horrible story was appalling to the romantic young woman, yet at the same time it was appealing for the woman's familiar devotion to her chosen (Sakura carefully ignored the fact that she was at the same time not in the least devoted to either Naruto or Sasuke, and in fact wanted them both for little more than their looks).

Sasuke glanced to Naruto from the corner of his eye and found the blonde staring straight ahead, face clear of any emotion but smoldering anger. He couldn't still be upset about losing? The anger wasn't proper for the story, so Naruto wasn't even affected by it, this in turn pissed Sasuke off to no measurable end. Maybe he could beat Sasuke into a hospitalized state with almost no effort, but that didn't matter- the prick needed to get his worthless ass beaten down if he could just ignore innocent people suffering around him.

Tazuna unconsciously saved the raven-haired genin's life when he announced their arrival. Sasuke quickly looked up and took in the building before them. Two floors, lower floor with a jutting forward room and patio, a window to the second floor above the patio's roof, a short bridge over a thin strip of water, ritzy considering the times and the country, built by the people who lived there obviously. The bridge-builder had mentioned a daughter and grandson, though not a son-in-law, so the grandchild's father was likely taken or dead. Either way he wasn't likely to be the sociable sort.

_Well… at least I haven't been spoiled on normalcy…_ Sasuke thought ruefully.

The ninja and bridge-builder quietly slipped into the house, the old man explained that the other two were likely to be asleep already and that they should simply set up in the guest rooms. With a minimum of noise, the two boys and one man set up in one room, cramped though it was, and Sakura (despite her protests that Naruto or Sasuke could sleep with her (Naruto had instantly begun to giggle at the insinuation) was spreading out a futon in the last guest room. Tazuna had retired shortly after identifying the places of what they'd need.

Sasuke, thankful for something besides dirt to sleep on was out like a light. Kakashi was gone not much after, still tired from overusing his Sharingan. Naruto, however stayed awake a bit longer. He was unable to sleep, a new place, the fact that he lost, these things pressed in on his mind. Very quietly, he got up, went to his pack and rummaged through it, finding what he sought after a few moments, he returned to his mat and sprawled out again under as many blankets as he could find or improvise.

-

Ninja were stealthy, silent even, able to endure any hardship and ignore any pain, it was in their charter to be paragons physical virtue. Thus, a good shinobi like Sasuke didn't much mind the cold, he had but a single thin blanket over him while he slept. He paid for it when he woke and threw it off of him, wincing at the sudden shock of pain in his muscles and joints. On the plus side, his spine didn't ache today. Well… Not as much.

He stretched painfully, trying to wrench his shoulder back into position, and glanced to the other two mats in the room. Kakashi's was folded up and left against the wall, which surprised Sasuke, he'd figured the jounin's punctuality would only be rivaled by his cleanliness. Naruto, however was still there, and under a pile of blankets. Snorting slightly, he kicked at the blanket-pile to try and wake his teammate up.

Any ninja had to be a light sleeper, so Sasuke expected him to spring up and attack him for the disturbance. However, Naruto did nothing, so he tried again, and again, each kick a little stronger than the last. Finally it seemed to get through to him and the blonde muttered and mumbled, shifting slightly. Thinking his efforts were successful, Sasuke was surprised when

Naruto only turned over and went back to sleep.

He was about to kick him in the head when he noticed the blonde was holding something. He contained a malicious smile as he thought that perhaps it was a teddy bear or some similar thing that could be made fun of, and was surprised when it turned out to be a hitai-ate. Not his own, for that was over his forehead, but one nonetheless important if the way he clutched it were any indication. Sasuke was torn between laughing and just leaving, laughing because the blonde clearly went against his own creed and held something that wasn't just power in high regard. He ended up biting his tongue and giving Naruto one last wakeup kick before leaving the room.

As the overall dark genin wandered rather confusedly through the house, he took note of things in his surroundings. The walls were clean, but still carried an air of age, there were squares of darker colors at odd intervals, Sasuke realized they must be where pictures had been. Even the nails in the walls were removed and the holes spackled over. All this of course led to question why they were removed and why wasn't the wall repainted, and the answer seemed to be obvious, they couldn't afford paint and couldn't bear to look at the image in the pictures, they must have had the husband in them. A little ways down the hall, Sasuke stopped at an open door and looked inside. It seemed to be a little boy's room, half a torn picture lay on the sill of a boarded-over window. The candles laying in the room seemed to have been used many times over, and there was a vague indentation upon the bed.

Sasuke quickly moved away, feeling empathy stir up in his heart again. With renewed determination he set off to find the stairway down.

-

Naruto woke up quite grudgingly, his body was sore still from the burning pain of Kyuubi's chakra, but he had decided something in his sleep, he knew why Zabuza was stronger and why he hadn't enjoyed the fight. So resolved, Naruto threw his blankets off of himself and got dressed, a malicious and disturbing grin forming on his face almost as soon as he was out of the makeshift bedroom. He gave himself the once-over as soon as he found the bathroom and frowned slightly.

His jacket had one sleeve that went down half of his bicep, still a huge hole where his abdomen was partially blasted off once, his pants had become shorts very quickly, ragged ones at that. His other arm was now bare some ways over his torso, the edges were rapidly falling apart, another thing he could chalk up to Zabuza's accursed sword. He changed his observation to himself, and frowned at the forever-blue eyes, he wondered if those would ever change and decided they probably wouldn't. He pulled some of his tenant's chakra into himself and his eyes remained blue, no noticeable fangs. He dispersed the chakra with an annoyed sigh and went down to the rest of his team, he passed a sentimental-looking Sasuke before walking downstairs on the ceiling.

It took a few minutes but he soon found Kakashi, Tazuna, and the old man's daughter (or too-young mistress, Naruto's mind offered with a lecherous internal grin). He plopped down onto one of the mats on the ground unceremoniously, wide smile and sorry clothes adding several strange levels to the silence in the room. After the silence stretched on for a minute he developed an irritated tic over his eye and glanced over to his sensei.

"What's up with all the quiet? Old man's back home now and Zabuza's no concern anymore, smooth sailing right?" He actually sounded a little disappointed while he spoke and Kakashi had to sigh at the tone.

"Good to see you're back to normal Naruto, angst doesn't suit you, you know." Naruto mocked being wounded but didn't interrupt him. "Anyway, we're not out of the woods yet, the hunter-nin who took Zabuza's body wasn't a hunter-nin. More likely Zabuza's accomplice. Meaning he probably didn't kill Zabuza, so-"

Sasuke ran into the room when he heard shouting and found the blonde genin jumping around and dancing, cheering wildly over some news or another.

-

He threw his hands forward and the chakra flooded into the clear blue depths, Kyuubi's energy turning the water into a frothy, bubbling red. His face screwed into a tight grimace as he fought the chaotic energy and the unwilling water both at once and brought his hands together, as if prying open a door. The water's bubbling and frothing concentrated into a singular line but intensified, greatly, red rushed into Naruto's features as he grunted in pain at the exertion, sweat ran rivulets down his face in spite of the morning cold.

A strangled cry escaped him as he pulled his hands apart violently, the beach sand whipped around him in a frenzy as he drew still more chakra from behind his seal. With glacial sloth, the waters split, rose and pulled away from itself, a corridor forming in the sea's bottom.

"a-a-**a-**A**ka**i…. Uu**uu**m**i-i **n-n**o** j-**j**-**ju**tsu…" The red sea technique was something Naruto half-remembered from a book some idiot had tried to sell him once. He thought it was a crock of shit at the time but this technique stuck with him, and he had always wanted to try it out. Of course, by now the water was towering over him on either side, his arms were stretched out as far as they could go and his whole body was shaking. Without much warning his chakra field collapsed and the water crashed back around him again, the cold sapping away all the external hurt from the technique's execution. The water then rushed back out and Naruto collapsed onto the freshly wet sand, breathing hard and his eyes shut tightly against the still fierce internal burn.

He'd come here to train after Kakashi decided to teach Sakura and Sasuke the tree-climbing technique. After all, he had to train and get stronger, and he most definitely did not want to be around Inari or that coddling bitch mother of his…

-

Sakura and Sasuke sat with hard, unreadable looks after hearing of Zabuza's survival, the woman of the house set out bowls of oatmeal before the ninja team and her father. Moments later another bowl was set out for her son when he came to the table as well. The atmosphere was peaceful for a moment, Naruto and Kakashi eating, one with a huge smile and the other eating so fast no one saw his face. Of course, for ninja, nothing is ever as simple as a quiet, amiable breakfast in relative silence.

Less than a minute after sitting down and enduring the mood, Inari lashed out at the ninja. "Why are you even here? Gatou's just gonna have you all killed you know." Tsunami instantly tried to shush her son when Naruto burst out laughing. "HEY! I'M SERIOUS! HE'S GONNA KILL YOU! DON'T YOU GET IT?!"

Finally forcing himself to answer Naruto let red simmer on the surface of his skin for a long minute, and then looked to Inari. "Hehe, it just strikes me as funny, someone dies, just one person, and it breaks you. You're broken, you've lost whatever strength you had, little brat like you probably had no will to live anyway. You wouldn't understand so I'll use little words for you, maybe you'll learn something." Killing joy seeped from his pores, causing the protest in Tsunami's throat to catch and die. "I have strength, because I refuse to die, that's what being strong is, not letting anyone kill you, I have strength and there's nothing to change it so long as I don't care about anyone. If people matter, then your strength is worthless, because everyone else is weak. I have power, because I can, I have, and I love killing. I am strong and will not die, I have power and I will kill anyone in my way, I don't care who or what," He looked distantly, out a window as the aura he was throwing off swelled again. "The only thing that makes you worth anything is power." He got up and left, the door slammed shut when a tendril of red energy flung itself back into the house and pulled the door shut.

-

Inari sat behind a tree and watched the ninja do things that were astounding to him. There was power in the boy he watched, there was strength. Why was he strong? What power did he have and why did he have it? He didn't care, it was power he needed, he wanted that strength and he wanted that skill. Cautiously, Inari stepped out from behind the tree to call the ninja's attention to himself.

-

Sakura stood on the bridge one hand ever resting on her kunai pouch as she watched the workers, old and young, all men with a hope like Tazuna. To see their country be free and healthy again. The old man did his share of work too, lifting steel beams and bags of concrete, working just as hard as anyone else there. Anyone except her. She had finished the chakra training and so Kakashi had sent her here to guard the workers, but she was here because she was too worthless to waste time training, that was how she felt.

A resolution formed in her, remembering Naruto's words, she wanted to prove that she wasn't weak, that she had power, and if she didn't now, she would. She would. "Tazuna-san, is there anything I can do to help?"

-

End Chapter Ten At Any Cost

Author note: Alright, Naruto's angstiness is over, I promise. I'm really trying here to put character in the land of waves, is it going well? Should I stop trying to filler the people up and go straight to the fight? I really would rather not, but this is a story, it is for the fans and readers.

A1: Super-dooper!

1: Sasuke is becoming more human now. Yes. If Naruto is going to be inhumane, Sasuke has to pick up the slack.

2: Aidis asked why would it benefit Sasuke to dissuade him from caring? Reflect on Haku's words, 'I will kill my heart and become a true ninja'…

3: You wouldn't think he could be stealthy, but Naruto's a quick study as is shown in the series, and when needs must, one can assimilate knowledge quickly.

Aidis: I actually have nothing to say… I'm disappointed in myself…


	12. Chapter 11

Author Note: Oh wow, I was right! The manga's ten times better and I'm still in the Wave arc. Not only that but Tsunami's definitely a looker in the manga. On a totally unrelated note, pocky and porn (whether in story, picture, movie, drawing, or whatever other form) are a combination that will lead mankind to world peace.

Author Note 2: Oh FFNET soooo infuriates me, I'd have posted a week ago but the site would not allow it. Well... here it is anyway.

At Any Cost

Chapter Eleven

Moses ain't got shit on me.

-

The ninja turned away from his current work, breathing heavily and obviously exhausted, and regarded the little boy. "What did you say?"

Inari looked back at the older boy, a boy perhaps only five years older than him but who was already a man in the eyes of his own village. A boy old enough to kill and be killed, know and make love, to live free and become strong. His eyes narrowed slightly as he repeated his demand. "Teach me to be strong like you, I want that power, I need it… As I am I can't avenge anyone, not even my father, who fought so hard to protect us."

The ninja paused, then snorted. "Revenge? That won't get you anywhere, that's for people who live in the past. You can't become strong for the sake of revenge, there's no power in revenge."

"Then why are you strong? What purpose do you have power for?! WHAT'S THE POINT IF YOU CAN'T GET YOUR REVENGE?!"

"Revenge isn't everything. Didn't I just say that?"

"BAH! What do you know anyway?!" Inari turned and began to stalk away from the ninja, eyes shut tight as he recalled his father, tied against a post, knives slicing into the flesh, the blood…

In a flash the ninja was before him again, wire and shuriken already in the air, pinning the boy to the ground while he came closer, and looked down at him with hard, unreadable eyes. "I may know a lot more than you think. Don't judge people until you know their history. I watched my entire family die. My father and mother, my grandparents, my aunts, my uncles. All the friends I had made in my clan, my cousins and people I'd never even met. They were all killed by one man, he never even broke a sweat." The ninja sighed slowly and closed his eyes. "I wanted to kill him, it was my sole purpose, the reason I lived and grew, because I wanted to kill him. Staying away from people and burying myself in training, I became skilled, and maybe intelligent, I was the number-one rookie in my class. But I wasn't strong, I had no reason to truly live. That kind of life… I don't think people should live like that." He looked down to the little boy.

"What made you think that way?"

The ninja shrugged, unsure of himself. "I guess my teammates really. They're both always so damn happy, it pissed me off at first, I thought, what idiots, playing at being ninja. But Sakura really understands what it means to be a ninja, she's weak, and she's powerless, but she has cunning and intellect beyond what you would think, she knows that ninja are hard-bitten and jaded people so she's doing her damndest to enjoy her youth… Kakashi has the pain of losing someone, I can see it in him, and he has overcome the need for revenge."

Inari inclined his head as he regarded the other ninja. "What about the other one?"  
Sasuke winced slightly and yanked his weapons and wire back before sitting down in front of the kid. Inari unconsciously rubbed his arms where the wires bit into them as he sat up and looked at him. "Naruto… Naruto's the guy who influences me the most, I guess. When I first met him I thought 'what a loser' he was the worst in the academy's grades, and he hardly ever came to class. But then he introduced himself, as the vessel of the nine-tailed fox that attacked our village almost thirteen years ago. His life was lonelier than mine, and harder than yours, but he did what I did, threw himself completely into his training, foregoing friends and anything that would have made him any less powerful in his eyes. He never knew anything else and so he made himself enjoy it, he was hurt by people and no one helped him so he just wants to kill everyone. He's the ultimate avenger because he can't complete his revenge." He sighed and threw a hand towards the house they were all staying at. "When we got here, I heard about people who were suffering, and couldn't fight back and I thought 'someone should help them' and Naruto just snorted, he probably thought 'they're so weak they can't even stop this guy Gatou on their own'"

Inari looked away, feeling suddenly sheepish. "Well… y'know we can't so he's not really wrong."

"You can defeat Gatou. I feel pretty confident that all you guys need is the courage to stand up together, unified, make a statement." He gave a kind of pitying sigh, "But I guess, you could always hire some ninja to help finish the bridge and pray Gatou doesn't buy the bridge when you finish it. Anyway. I found out after that just how strong Naruto is, he's impossible to kill and he never gets tired, if he decides to kill you he will channel power unlike anything you've ever seen before and will never see again, and he won't stop until you're dead or he can't go on. First time I saw him fight his leg was severed at the knee, his gut was blasted open, one of his arms was gone and his face was half gone. He was in perfect shape again after a second or two." Sasuke let the horror of the image sink into Inari's brain. "After that, he started acting up, bossing Sakura and me around, I fought him because I wanted to take him down a peg, and he almost broke my rib cage with only his own power. On the way here he tore a ninja apart with his bare hands and chakra, fought with a crushed heart and lung, got an arm cut off and invented two new techniques that made me violently sick. He's not even human, and he doesn't have a direction, and that's the path I almost took."

He shook his head, clearing the memories of Naruto's disturbing power from his thoughts. He knew its source, and hated to think what he would have done to match it, there were ways that humans could find power like that, and he had no desire to know what they were, not anymore at least. There was quiet for a moment in the forest as his companion seemed to be thinking too, Sasuke was only partially grateful for that. After a long while, the child intruded on his thoughts again. "Then… Then teach me, show me how I can protect my family and my friends!"

A grin split the Uchiha's face, it was an unnatural and abominable expression on him, didn't go well at all with his black eyes or his dark hair or his pale skin. Inari was frightened by it. "If that's the way it is… Then go do fifty push-ups, fifty sit-ups, and then run around your house a hundred times, no using the bridge either, you have to jump across the creek." Inari stared at him in shock as he stood up and focused his chakra before sticking to the trees. "Go on, I've got training to do too!"

Inari wondered, briefly, if he could change his motive back to revenge.

-

With an undignified grunt, Haruno Sakura lowered the third steel I-beam she'd been carrying into position, sliding it up flush against the next part while a pulley system held the other end in mostly the right place. This was something of a routine for her now in the second week of their stay in Wave country (1), the two boys would run off to train and she would guard Tazuna and help the bridge builders. Sasuke seemed odd, soft almost in the past few days, whatever it was, Sakura wasn't entirely sure she liked it and Inner Sakura was entirely sure she didn't like it.

As her mental image had described him, he was turning into a plushie version of himself, but without the cuteness or huggability. That was simply disgusting to Inner Sakura, who was much more attracted to the blonde sociopath. Why? Well… That would be a question for Inner Sakura, not the author. Sakura herself was partially disgusted with the shallowness and total emotional blankness her teammate exhibited, even Sasuke had never been that heartless. Then again they were different people with upbringings in different levels of pain.

Not that that excused him in any way of course.

Shaking herself from her reverie, she lowered another steel beam into place and smiled at the ease and simplicity of the motion, it had been much harder when she'd been doing it at first, but now there was almost no effort involved in holding it while one of the more skilled individuals fixed the supports into place. The land was close by now too, Sakura had to consider why exactly she was upset that the job would be coming to a close soon, but she accepted it with a minimum of grumble. Although one thing she wouldn't miss was that rat-bastard who had the audacity to grab her ass… On the construction site no less. Luckily she'd been holding a steel I-beam at that moment and used it to throw him off the bridge (or as she had related it to Sasuke, 'launched his pervert-ass into next Tuesday'. Sasuke had not shared her enthusiasm).

She was still surprised that Giichi, one of the workers who'd been Tazuna's friend for some considerable length of time, had been the only one to back out of the work. Tazuna had refused to let her pick a fight with him, since he'd been a friend and his fear was understandable, instead she had redoubled her 'training' efforts. It paid too, even if she lost the already debatable femininity of her figure, strength would impress both Sasuke and Naruto, not to mention that she could beat Ino-pig senseless next time they argued. Inner Sakura and her outer self shared a malicious laugh at the mental image of beating Ino up and having her two crushes throw themselves at her.

The bridge-builders gave her a wide berth when she had these spells.

-

"Aaaaaaa…. Ng.. aah… eheh…" The very disturbed blonde held his arms wide apart, red, evil chakra poured out of his body into the massive walls of water on either side of him, and they cast a crimson light over the misty beach. He began to laugh as he held the jutsu up now for at least ten minutes, and kept his eyes on the seafloor all the while, after all it hadn't seen daylight in millennia, he should bask in the sights he could. His arms began to shake as his chakra threatened to give out, and he eased the water back down, towering ten meters over him he didn't want to know the kind of impact he'd get from it. At two meters his arms collapsed and he was crushed into the sandy beach again by the wave. The subsequent ebb and flow lifted him from his spot and carried him up into the grassy area beyond the sand.

By this point, Naruto had been in Wave country less than a week (2), and it had been a very productive little bit of time at that. Then again, there were goals now, Naruto had to slay his foe and spill his viscera from a gaping wound in his abdomen. He had to feel the flow of warm and soothing blood so wonderful in color that it… Etcetera, Naruto's typical pseudo-lullaby after training to the point of exhaustion.

Kakashi had informed them when they arrived that Zabuza's injuries were likely faked, and momentary death induced to deceive them. For someone like Zabuza, he'd said, the recovery time should be about one week. Also the masked ninja who 'killed' him was likely to be an accomplice, highly skilled at that. The blonde looked forward to facing them again, killing the little, fake hunter-nin and wiping the floor with Zabuza for making him not enjoy his fight. And perhaps also for cutting off his arm and making him verge on angst.

In spite of his eagerness for a rematch, the blonde found himself remarkably calm in the almost groggy Wave country, the constant atmosphere of fear and depression from the people did nothing to spark his interest or disperse his good cheer. Which drew back to the question of where the blonde's brief angst had come from and where had it gone? His teammates would never describe Naruto as being an introspective or terribly deep person, and they would be right, mostly because he understood that he was happy as it was, and needed nothing greater or lesser.

What they wouldn't believe was that he knew for a fact that he could be 'better off' or indeed far 'worse off' according to normal people. When he slept, the blonde dreamt unsurprisingly of himself, though never his exact self. Naruto dreamt of other possible versions of himself, sometimes he wasn't even a he in the alternate times, although those visions frankly frightened him. One consistent dream involved another version of himself as a ridiculously stupid, hopelessly energetic more appropriate ninja.

The 'real' Naruto knew that his consistent dream self liked fighting, but hated the kill, he loved the Haruno girl and she was repulsed by him. Worst of all, dream-Naruto was still happy with everything, he had nothing and desired much, he wanted respect and love and would never receive either, and had already suffered pain from loss. He was ignored by Kakashi, and derided by his teammates, because he lacked power and strength. Dream-Naruto didn't even read Icha Icha!

Real Naruto saw his counterparts, and realized that his was the only true way, the only proper way, and he pursued it relentlessly and unquestioningly. He watched, as his dream-self competed with Sasuke, climbing trees with chakra, or trying to, just another sight of his own weakness, he even trained himself into exhaustion and was almost killed by-

Blue eyes flashed open and caught the hand over his face by its wrist. The eyes glinted subtly, expectant, until they took in the body the wrist and hand were attached to. Another kid, looking about the same age, with a nice face and a light, agreeable pink kimono. In a flash Naruto was on his feet hopping this way and that, seemingly blinking out of existence to reappear at other angles, examining the feminine creature. Appearing once more before her, he pulled out a little orange book and began running a finger along lines of characters.

The book slapped shut with a loud 'crack' and the blonde had a finger pointed in an accusatory fashion at the other individual. "AH-HAH! I know you! You're Mai! Waitaminute, Mai died in icha icha eight, after she seduced the god of death so that means… EEEEEE!!!! YOU'RE THE GHOST OF MAI COME TO HAUNT ME FOR NOT BUYING MY OWN COPY OF ICHA ICHA PARADISE VOLUME EIGHT: IN THE HANDS OF GODS!!" Though hearing the unflappable blonde scream in abject horror might have been funny, Haku simply blushed to a tremendously embarrassed red color, Hinata turned that color when she wore her mask around Naruto still.

"I think you're confused, my name's Haku, not Mai, and I'm fairly sure I'm alive, and I've never seduced the god of death," Naruto seemed unconvinced by the almost unemotional tone in the other's voice. Haku gave a depressed sigh and shook his or her head in an almost disdainful manner. "You're a ninja, right?"

The question, as Haku had hoped, quickly banished Naruto's delusional fear of her and he quickly turned in another, potentially dangerous direction. "Ninja? Well, yeah I guess I am, but I'm not a good ninja, I'm just unnaturally powerful, being the host of Kyuubi no Kitsune and all. You wanna fight me? I just finished my new technique, I call it 'Moses ain't got shit on me' and it's really awesome!" the girlish child blinked confusedly and shook his or her head again with his or her hands up in a placating manner.

"N-no, no that's alright, I'm not a ninja, and I wouldn't want to fight someone as strong as you anyway." He/she carefully tiptoed around the proclamation that he was the vessel of the nine-tails, he/she not quite believing the real host would be so stupid. Haku cleared his or her throat and gave the boy an imploring look. "I am searching for a particular kind of herb, will you help me gather it for a while?" He/she held up a sprig of some plant or another for his inspection and he gave a shrug, obviously disappointed at the absence of a fight.

"Ehh, yeah sure I guess. Say, aren't people supposed to be careful out around this area?" Naruto, despite his firm belief that only the strong and powerful were worth anything, was too worn out right now to train. When he was exhausted he always let curiosity take over. So he calmly set about looking for the herbs the girl (or boy) sought.

Had Naruto trained more for the less violent work of ninjas, he might've easily spotted the herb, had he even trained more conventionally within that realm of combat, the same might have occurred. As it was now he was randomly picking through the ground brush for the herbs his new companion was seeking. Speaking of his new companion, she/he had just spoken to him. "What is your name?"

Naruto looked back at him/her and blinked in frank confusion before it clicked in his head. "Oh, Uzumaki Naruto, vessel of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. You can call me Demon, Monster, Naruto, or God, I've been called a lot of things so I don't much care. What's yours?"

"Haku," s/he answered simply, and the introduction seemed finished with that. Naruto went back to searching for the herb and the gender-neutral child did the same. For a while there were no communications between the two, then, as the first time, Haku spoke to question Naruto. "Do you have anyone precious to you already?"

Being as focused and tired as he was, Naruto's attention was solely on the ground before him. His/her words, thus, startled him. He once more looked back towards her. "Say that again?"

"Do you already have someone precious to you?" His or her tone was now significantly less warm, and Naruto was certain he or she wasn't hitting on him. He hoped.

His expression however showed a flicker of darkness before brightening. "No, I have only myself, and because I have only me, I am stronger and am even more powerful." However, his answer didn't seem to please Haku overmuch.

"Actually you're wrong. Because you have no one precious to you, you lack power. Because you stand alone you lack strength. When you protect someone you love, a precious person, you can become truly strong."

Haku's words dispelled Naruto's cheer dead away. His countenance darkened immeasurably and he placed a hand on his shuriken holster. "Precious people, loved ones, only die and leave us. In the time they live they hurt us and their death leaves an open, weeping sore in your soul. Luckily I have a spare." He looked up at him or her with fierce, animal eyes, the blue was vibrant, full of life in the same way a corpse is full of maggots and bacteria. His fetid blue eyes stared right through him or her. "I am indestructible, and I could slaughter the entire world if I thought they would be a challenge. I am Uzumaki Naruto, I fight for the sake of fighting, violence is my sex and the killing blow my high, pray you never see me again, Haku, for you have drawn my rage." Naruto was fairly sure that was his best bad-ass routine, and gave himself silent congratulations as he went back towards the house of the bridge builder, his stomach reminded him he needed food again. Stupid stomach.

-

Kakashi reflected that it was good to be team leader sometimes. He had the responsibility to wait around and grab a hold of Naruto when he saw him again to give him a training regimen, and the other two bought that with almost no convincing. Since Inari had sprung himself from the house as well, he was alone all day with Tsunami, this was something even better to the perverted Cyclops. So it was, with a little bit of alcohol-aided plying, that Tsunami sat beside him at the table, giggling her ass off at his ninja adventures, and obviously as drunk as she'd ever been, pouring the jounin another drink from the umpteenth bottle.

"So then Gai screams and says 'NO! Kakashi your hipness has once again bested my youthful passion, as I promised I would, I shall now run around the Hokage monument forty times before nightfall, on my hands, and if I fail to do that…' I was already gone of course, I had things to do that day, but I should have known running into Gai first thing in the morning was a bad omen for my mission."

"oh no! Kakashi-kun, what went wrong?" Although she wasn't quite coherent at the time so it came out in more of a drunken slur. The jounin however, understood the enthralled-widow dialect of drunken slur and did his best to look rueful from his one eye. Not hard really.

"I don't really like to talk about that mission, it…"

"Ohh, Kakashi-kun you can tell meeeeeeeeeeeeeee."

He paused for a few moments longer and then looked over at her, a still sad look in his eye. "Well on that mission I lost the woman I loved, I still miss her today…" This brought about a whole new round of sympathetic weeping in slur-ese from the widow, Kakashi barely repressed his grin.

_Works every time._ (3)

-

Naruto watched the incoming ship, taller than the boats he'd seen up until now, but they wouldn't be able to resist him. From on deck he heard shouts of 'what's that?' and 'he's just standing there' along with cries of 'get him!' and 'kill him!'. His grin spread wider still as he looked over the people who were looking down at him where he stood, miles out from shore on the water. A part of him absently wondered why Kakashi never taught him how to walk on water, and another portion just said that it was easy as sin once you figured out tree walking.

But the inner monologue was a sub-plot of the sadistic grin on the blonde's face. He stared up at the men on the boat and called out to them in a sing-song voice. "IS THERE ANYONE STRONG UP THERE??"

A moment later there was much shouting and yelling, someone threw a bucket at the idiot blonde, clocking him solidly on the head. Unfortunately the bucket bent inward and caved around the blonde's skull. The crowded bow suddenly got quiet.

His grin didn't falter.

"OKAY THEN!" fingers interlaced, hands clasped together he entered his favorite seal and widened his stance. Red chakra boiled in his stomach and spilled out from his seal like fire from an open window. The red wrapped around him and then drew forward, together around his hands, more and more gathered and then he lifted his still linked arms up into the air, as if presenting the snake seal for inspection. "Akki Chishichuusha!" his hands broke apart and flung downwards, scattering away all the red sizzling energy into the sea. Streams of the crackling demon-energy whipped off of his arms and hands and flooded into the waters, mixing and fading away from sight, finally it seemed over and he released the pose. Gathering a breath for the next part.

The people on the ship seemed to think that was it though, and when he did nothing more for several minutes they began to, at first nervously, and then with greater enthusiasm laugh at the apparent ineffectiveness of his technique. Naruto looked up at them and smiled broadly, before his hands came back together with the fingers interlaced and palms pointed outward. "THAT WAS PHASE ONE!" He cried out to them, "NOW YOU GET TO SEE HOW EVIL REALLY WORKS!" Red spilled out of him once more, this time naked to the eye and went further into the water, deeper than ever before, straining and pulling, it activated the killing, corrupting streams already in it. The water began to glow an ominous orange-red around the ship.

He panted, heaving for air once more. Out on the open sea this job was harder, but he would do it, he opened his mind up and let the fox see what he was doing, the act opening up still more chakra for him, his body screamed in protest but he refused to back down just yet. A loud grunt and he began to pull his arms apart, a line forming slowly in the water as he did. "AKAI…" he began, another half-scream half-grunt. "UMI…" He dropped the act and grinned widely as he pulled his hands easily the rest of the way apart, and the massive boat fell, all hands aboard, to the sea floor, hellish red light illuminating as they crashed amidst other wrecks from today. "No jutsu." There were no bodies on the other boats, the surviving crew noted dully, before the sea walls crashed down around them again.

"Fufufufu…" Naruto was feeling much better now than he had when he met Haku four days ago. Now his jutsu was finished too, time to earn his keep and guard the old man. He grinned as he walked back across the water, Hinata would be so excited when he told her about his new techniques.

-

1: The attack hasn't happened yet, I'm giving the genin team time to train and Haku time to think of a counter to Naruto and a likely way to counter Kakashi since (s)he didn't see him fight much.

2: For those keeping track at home, Sakura's section is two weeks in and just before the attack, Naruto's section is a few day's into the stay. About when Haku shows up first.

3: For more on this one, encourage me to write Hatake Kakashi and the MILF.

Author Note: Sorry folks, for the delay. Stuff happens. Next chapter will be Wave arc final fight, and if I get to it, you'll see what the Akki Chishichuusha Akaiumi no jutsu will do. Kek.

Aidis: …… HAHAHAHAHAHA….. Kakashi and the MILF….. HAHAHA

Islagatt: (The author glares meaningfully at his beta) Hey, watch it, or I'll make it a tentacle fic! (The author pauses with a faraway look in his eyes) Kukukukuku… What you never wondered about my awesome Shokushu no jutsu?


	13. Chapter 12

Author Note: I'm so happy, so many perverts here, it's just heartwarming (author wipes away a tear). Now to pervert you all into different forms of deviance… Kukukukuku… Maybe Megaherz is the wrong band to listen to when I write this stuff…

Disclaimer: I just realized I haven't said it lately, so just for the record, I don't own Naruto or any of the marketable derivative products. I am going to own, however, the rights to A Comparative Biology of Horrendus Tentaculi.

At Any Cost

Chapter Twelve

How you fight is unimportant, only _that_ you fight. And that you win.

-

A week into the trip, which for all the team (Kakashi included) had become really little more than an extravagant training mission, Naruto surprised the remainder of his team and their hosts by dropping into a seat from the ceiling in time for breakfast with everyone else. Their cyclopean sensei spoke up first, to ask what each member of the team was wondering. In his own way at least.

"Nice of you to join us Naruto, ready to help out in the mission?" His question went unanswered for a long moment as Naruto tore into the food set before him with a careless zeal. He was about to command his subordinate to respond when Naruto chewed thoughtfully, swallowed and turned to face his teammate with all his killing joy flowing freely, his deranged smile plastered onto his face.

"I'm ready to help, but if we go a week without killing I'm going to take some more time off again, and next time I'll have more _fun_…" He giggled insanely after that and resumed his eating, leaving his teammates to edge away from him slowly and Kakashi with a slight headache and a mental note to find out what he did while he was away.

When he seemed sated, he hopped back up to the ceiling and took out a book again, being quiet and giggly with his porn while he waited for his defense target to do… anything. The rest of the people gathered thought little of it, and with a little bit of determination, they went with the flow.

When the rest of the group finished their meal, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Inari went off towards the forest, the first two stating they would be 'training' and the last not offering an explanation for following his hero. However, his smile was something that Tsunami wouldn't question. Sakura, Naruto, and Tazuna went towards the bridge almost immediately thereafter. Tazuna and Sakura set to work almost immediately and Naruto meanwhile wandered the bridge site, a helpful (if somewhat lazy) bridge worker showing him around the place.

"Over there are the portable toilets," he pointed to the beach as he said this "and we eat over there at around noon," he indicated a large group of tables and benches. The pair wandered closer to the bridge now, one actively leading and the other clearly only there for want of something better to do. "We keep the unused supplies over here and the trashed things, faulty I-beams, rusty metal, concrete excess, that sorta thing." He pointed at the other side of the bridge. "You need anything else just give ol' bastard Tonkatsu a call." He laughed as he clapped a hand on Naruto's shoulder and went off to find some work to avoid doing.

As one might expect, Naruto wasn't much listening to him, he was already investigating the junked steel and concrete, smiling unpleasantly all the while.

-

Sasuke ran up along the tree, feet thumping evenly against the branches with each step, a few pieces of bark flying off each time he lifted a foot from the tree again. Kakashi noted idly that he was still wasting chakra with his current technique, but he was well on his way to improvement. He turned to the other kid with him and held out a kunai for his inspection, they boy's gaze lingered on the sparkling, sharp weapon.

"Now Inari, hold the kunai like so…" The boy tried to mimic the gesture but couldn't quite manage it. "No, let your fingers split a bit so they keep it even as well, that's right, good. Now don't try to throw it yet, just watch Sasuke do it first."

The genin in question hurled himself from the tree he was on and skidded down the length of another tree before coming to rest on the ground beside his new apprentice. He slipped a kunai into the proper throwing position and showed his hand to Inari, then drew back to indicate he was ready. When Sasuke was absolutely certain the little boy had his attention on him, he snapped his arm straight out, and the limb continued on it's trajectory, his body turning slightly from the hip as he sent the metal sailing. The kunai left his arm when it was pointed straight in the direction he wanted it to go, and flew true, straight, and whistled until it 'thunk'd into the trunk of a tree some meters away from them.

Inari watched the process, his face a mask of awe at first, then it shifted into determination as Sasuke looked to him with an encouraging smile. A part of his mind heard Kakashi beside him say 'Now Inari-' but he got no further as he drew back his arm, got into the right stance, and promptly swung his arm in the graceful, swift arc Sasuke had, releasing the kunai just so at the optimal point-

'Thunk'

-

As he bit his lip in obvious concentration, attempting now to lift one of the heavy steel I-beams, Naruto's head jerked up as he heard a distant cry. It came from the direction of the house, he knew that Sakura must have heard it too, and began a mental debate, the I-beam momentarily forgotten in the pile.

He hadn't been able to adequately identify the sound as a scream of pain or a whoop of joy. If it was joy, who the fuck cared anyway? If it was pain though, then it might be a fight, and if it was a fight, there were two possibilities. The first was that they would defeat Kakashi and Sasuke, kill Inari and Tsunami and be done with it, in which case there was no problem, since the enemy would still be there for Naruto to fight. At the same time though, Kakashi might defeat the enemy, and that would be horrible, because then who would Naruto fight?! He sighed angrily, unable to decide, and finally came to a conclusion that Kakashi would have praised him for.

He'd let Sakura figure it out.

The plan was ingenious, Sakura was a ninja, surely she could more adequately identify the sound, and if she did, she would logically come and tell him to go and destroy whatever it was if it needed destroying, or she'd let him be and decide there was nothing to worry about. Naruto couldn't help but smile at his own cunning, getting a chance for a fight and at the same time working on a new jutsu…

With his huge smile in place, he went back to trying to pick up an I-beam, after several chakra-boosted attempts, he was beginning to make progress, he grinned widely at the prospect of another awesome technique that would be his and his alone. He thought of showing Hinata the new technique as well, and his body began to run on auto-pilot, the idea of what he was presently attempting was rather simple so it was only a matter of trying to maintain it for longer than he was able to just then.

This was actually a common occurrence for Naruto, letting his body run on auto-pilot, while his mind went to something new. It was also common that his mind turned to Hinata, especially of late, however the thoughts he was presently getting of her were anything but a common occurrence.

He imagined the two of them laying exhausted on the forest floor, fresh blood on her cheek from the slash across her face, he told her his secret, the source of his power, what he valued at that moment above all other things (except possibly his morning steamed pork and vegetable buns). Kyuubi no Kitsune. He recalled the sound she had made and his chakra flared, his body lifted up the I-beam with ease, he could hold it for hours if heard that little sound again.

Then he remembered further, and groaned in an unfamiliar sensation, remembering her straddling his waist and swearing that she would 'keep' him and have him for her mate. His eyes shone bright with virulent blue light and his fingers went _through_ the solid steel, chakra weakening it and fingers molding the metal into the desired shape. But then his memories went further and his dream-self began doing more things, things that the real him had not done, nor had he thought of.

Dream-Naruto reached up and pulled dream-Hinata down by the shoulders of her crème white jacket, and locked his lips with hers, their tongues danced and battled in the midst of the fiery kiss. Chakra like molten slag erupted within and without, spurring him on, power and desire, one a friend and companion, the other a new ally.

The dream-lovers-to-be pulled apart, different people suddenly, powerful people, older people, mature, and in Hinata's case, enthralling on a whole new level. The now adult dream-Naruto surged forward, and pinned the adult Hinata beneath him, his mouth meeting hers again in a hungry, predatory fashion, his clawed hand reached to grasp and knead at one of the firm, prominent lumps on her flesh…

With a surge and a scream of power, Naruto threw himself forward at absolutely nothing, his excited body racing ahead of the suddenly interrupted mind, the I-beam he was clutching lashed forward, wildly swinging this way and that. When he returned to his senses, seeing the battered, broken trees before him and behind him, he turned to look over his new jutsu and grinned evilly.

It would suck to oppose Uzumaki Fucking Naruto, he decided with pride. (1)

-

There was a certain reluctance at dinner almost a week after Naruto's second jutsu was created, for most of the room there was a certain sadness, tempered by a hopeful good cheer. For one of the people there the good cheer was checked by a sense of foreboding. And for one who had none of these feelings or fears, there was sleepiness. Naruto was, in fact, very tired, and very eager to get to sleep and have pleasing dreams of grown-up Hinata and showing her how useful some of his jutsu could be.

At the same time he was also ravenous, he'd hunted some wild animals that morning when he first ran out to the bridge site with Sakura, and they hadn't sated his hunger, and the piles of food he had shoveled in, those did not sate either. It was infuriating, but finally he felt he could eat no more, though he hungered still, he wouldn't let such concerns show though, he smiled and thought about a fight, a fight he was looking forward to.

Everyone else though was rather sad by now, Tazuna, being himself, was laughing and cheering and being loud as he could, proclaiming that the next day would likely see the completion of the bridge. His daughter was making idle chit-chat, discussing pleasant nothings with- surprisingly- Sasuke. Tsunami had tried to make idle conversation with Sakura at first, but the pink haired girl had become not exactly lady-like in her attempts to gain Naruto and Sasuke's favors, Sasuke however was raised in a noble family, however evil, and was trained in such affairs as idle chit-chat, among other things like cross-dressing.

Inari, though disheartened by his idol's ability to speak of mundane, almost girly things with his mother, decided not to be deterred by the new and strange development. He was loudly proclaiming his new skills and their virtue to anyone who would listen, which happened to be really only Tazuna and Sakura, and those two only half. At one point during the meal he had asked his grandfather if he might go to Konoha, to enroll in the academy the following year, and there had been a round of sake poured out in celebration of a new ninja family for Konoha.

As the group began to return upstairs, Kakashi and Naruto lagged behind a bit, the former turning to the latter with a stern expression.

"They'll attack tomorrow Naruto, you have to be at the bridge with us, understand? You can get first crack at whichever one you want, and if you finish them before I finish the other, then you get them."

Naruto grinned, his eyes shone bright and his breathing became shallow. "Just let me at them Kakashi-sensei, it sucks to oppose Uzumaki Fucking Naruto, that's my way of the warrior," he had gone upstairs then, unaware that his voice had been cracking as he spoke, and ruining the whole psycho-badass effect.

Kakashi sighed tiredly and went to bed.

-

In the early morning Naruto and Sasuke saluted and marched towards the bridge, flanking the old man while Kakashi took trail. Sakura had already worked hard at the bridge, so they had left her to rest a bit longer today (though he didn't say it, Kakashi also wanted her to guard the family just in case). In the meantime, Kakashi was tense and Naruto was drooling blatantly, the diseased (if brilliant) light was in his eyes again, and Sasuke was painfully aware that something was just about to happen. Precisely what it was he was sensing he did not know, how could one define the unknown after all, but there was something there, probably it was Zabuza and his masked person again.

As the forest around them fell away and they drew nearer to the construction site, Sasuke thought he sensed a hint of chakra in the early morning fog, more than likely it was thrown off by his idiot, demon teammate. It was notable, just then, that some days it sucked to be an Uchiha, with Uchiha luck, and the Uchiha tendency to assume.

As they came closer, the unconscious bodies of several bridge-workers were piled up at the edge of the bridge, and a ways before them he could just sense the two powerful chakra sources. Tazuna was about to speak when Kakashi beat him to it. "Go ahead Naruto, pick one."

Naruto snarled unpleasantly at the mists, and quickly clashed his hands together, and then ripped a path of non-mist through the bridge's entire length. He grinned broadly and moved to the scrap pile, selecting a random I-beam and beginning to move forward. "HELLO ZABUZA! NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN! Kyuugoshiraeheiki no jutsu!" His chakra flared out and wrapped around the cudgel, and now he looked really scary, charging down the wide open bridge, the mists having parted under a seemingly divine suggestion, much against their wielder's intent, an eight foot length of rusted metal pointing another direction almost haphazardly and tendrils of vile red light flowing from the boy's body like some kind of hellish wing.

The wing's ends lashed over the metal and before long the eight foot long piece of steel was an eight foot long, three quarters of a foot wide, inch-thick sword, now streaming it's own vile red light, the rusty color it bore before sinking into a much darker, much blood color.

Zabuza captured Haku's silent thoughts at just that moment in a simple and eloquent phrase. "Oh fuck me."

-

Sakura, despite being a ninja and highly sensitive, could really sleep like a rock, another version of Naruto would have disagreed that sleeping Sakura was more like a slow flow of lava, hot, compressed, cool to the touch but just beneath, waiting for the wrong moment, ready to explode and melt your face off.

There were many versions of Naruto, that particular one had been stared at for something on the order of three hours (likely because that version of Naruto had never actually been known to sleep anywhere near Sakura, which had rather disturbing implications). Not that that had anything to do with where the story is going, I just thought it was a lovely little tangent, and I do so love my tangents…

Where was I?

Sakura, despite being a ninja and thus an individual with keen senses and a lightning-quick reaction speed, slept like a rock. Inari added weight to this statement when team seven was heading off to the bridge by poking her in the back with a stick he'd had simply sitting in his room. The girl hadn't moved or made a noise and the boy had grown bored, abandoning the quest to provoke her and rushing off to help his mother with something.

While she slept like a rock, she was also a desperate fangirl with two hapless crushes, one of whom happened to be the living incarnation of a demon fox (2). Thus, a wave of the oppressive, evil chakra being tossed around was something that would catch her attention. She jolted awake instantly and focused her attention on the wave, it dimmed rapidly, obviously a jutsu, but Naruto didn't use jutsu unless he was actually in a fight.

Logically that suggested that she had been left behind by Kakashi, Sasuke, Naruto, and Tazuna. Why was that so obvious? Well she _was_ the most intelligent kunoichi of their graduating class, and the lack of either Kakashi in her room or sounds of Inari and Sasuke outside led her to conclude that neither was here. She quickly pulled on the pseudo-dress she always wore, affixed her hitai-ate and grabbed her shuriken holster, hopping out the window in the process and preparing to bolt after her team. The sight that greeted her however, caused her to change her mind quickly, and forced her to draw out a pair of kunai.

Below, on the bridge leading away from the house, a pair of sword-armed thugs hauled the robust housewife from her home, the woman's wrists were bound behind her and she was forced forward, one samurai walking behind and one in front, neither was taking their hands off their swords. Sakura was about to leap forward and attack them, take them both down at once with a well placed kunai into their skulls. Before she met Naruto, she cared, and worried, and was afraid of her first kill, since she met him she had been looking forward to it, hoping that just maybe she could show them- Naruto and Sasuke- that she was powerful, worthwhile like they were. A voice, a young voice, interrupted her thoughts and her attack though.

"STOP! LET HER GO RIGHT NOW!" The tailing samurai-wannabe turned to face the kid and sneered distastefully.

"Damn punk kid, who do you think you are tellin' us what to do?" He snickered cruelly as he drew his blade and a gasp from the bound woman.

"NO! Please don't hurt him, if you kill him, I'll bite my tongue and drown on my own blood!" Sakura winced internally, jealousy touching her insides as she heard the proclamation, but she tuned out the feeling. Ninja were not meant to have emotions interfering with their duties.

"Tch, fine, let's get going…" The trailing swordsman grumbled, but obliged his senior partner. Sakura thought for sure that Inari would shout at them again, but she was surprised and disappointed when he didn't. He surprised her even more though by throwing a kunai with deadly-accurate aim.

Right into the trailing samurai's ass.

The resultant scream consumed many lines of text, with weeping and painful moaning, screaming, and crying in general. Sakura laughed herself silly as she leapt down from the rooftop perch and dragged a kunai from the man's throat down to his groin, cutting through the hard-cartilage shell of his ribcage, and kicked him away with a spin kick that had her whole body weight behind it. She was vaguely aware of the scream of the second swordsman and Tsunami's shocked cry as she leapt onto a post anchoring the bridge in place and sprang off it, around Tsunami and brought the kunai quickly forward to render the man's hands useless stumps, one kunai cleaving through his neck so that the blade scraped his spine on the backswing.

Just that fast, she was finished with them, her first kills. She turned to look back to Inari, smiling as blood dripped from the man's neck spray down her face and hair. "Inari, take your mom back inside, you did good to protect her and I'm sure Sasuke's proud of you!" With that said, she bolted off towards her crushes, set on finding Naruto first, for no positively identifiable reason.

-

Zabuza one-armed the kubikiri houchou to block the girder-sword's latest strike, a half seal formed from his free hand and seven water clones formed, rising from the puddles on the ground. Naruto's eyes blazed and he hopped back, his foe taking the chance to spring away and begin forming hand seals, a trio of chakra-tentacles flew forward and forced him to evade while the blonde's massive sword smashed through the new clones, smashed into the concrete bridge and dragged along as Naruto charged forward again, his remaining tentacles shot back behind him, blocking or vaporizing needles of ice as the masked nin assaulted his unguarded flank.

Sasuke and Kakashi already stood back to back in a cage of ice mirrors, fighting as hard as they could to stay alive. A glance through the gaps in the mirrors told Sasuke how the fight between Zabuza and his teammate was going, and it frightened the human part of him. He leapt away suddenly, kunai lashing out to block more of the needles rushing at him, even against his best attempts another three needles lodged into his side, drawing out a yelp of pain.

Naruto brought the sword over his head, a powerful downward strike from his improvised weapon, and Zabuza was forced to block it with both hands on the hilt of his cleaver. The blonde pressed his advantage with insane laughter, tentacles of foul chakra encircling and walling them off so he couldn't attempt to escape again, as his sword lifted and smashed down again, meeting less resistance the second time. A third time the blades crashed and when he lifted his weapon Zabuza attacked, the cleaver swinging up under his outstretched arms and cutting through at the upper arm, the girder dropped to the ground with the arm, but still there was the shrieking laughter, the encircling shield let up as a glowing red arm, made of chakra replaced the one only just cut off.

Zabuza threw himself backwards and began making seals again as Naruto picked up his weapon and heaved it up in his new chakra arm, laughter rolled off his maniac eyes as he charged again, arm and blade dragging behind as the limb lengthened comically.

Kakashi threw himself back, ice needles near-constantly pelting towards him from the missing nin, whoever it was knew enough to keep Kakashi moving, and unable to get his chakra focused, but he couldn't even protect Sasuke at the current rate. He concentrated and lifted a hand to his hitai-ate, a needle shot out at the hand, and Kakashi raised a kunai to block the weapon, another came from another direction and punched through his glove and between the supporting bones of two fingers, fire danced into the jounin's brain at the sensation. He forced the hand to grab another kunai and block the still-coming needles, he glanced at Sasuke in one of the mirrors and saw him watching the other nin with wonder in his eyes.

Sasuke stared, his eyes burned as he forced chakra into them, forced more into his brain, he had to _see _this enemy- more needles! He spun away and blocked them, and stared at the white-masked nin with blood red eyes, one with two tears in it and the other with only a single one. Kakashi stared at the eyes in the mirror and was struck by memory, momentarily rooted in place. Haku saw, and took his opportunity, he had to finish the copy-ninja _now_.

Without understanding what or why, Sasuke saw the needles leave the mirror, and moved, through the gap he watched a flare of red blasting towards him, but too late, his feet had left the ground.

Zabuza faltered, stumbling, but managed to raise his weapon once more to block the strike from the blonde's now chipped and haggard-looking blade. It smashed into him from his right side, and the cleaver sunk into the ground, where he had anchored it to hold against the chakra-guided strike, just as the last time a wave of power blasted off from the impact, throwing the mist nin and his blade feet away from him. He struggled to his feet, a one handed seal forming some twenty mizu bunshin between the pair.

His left arm was dangling, cut at the bicep by a previous strike, he watched the water splash before him as his clones fought, and poured what strength he had into the jutsu he was trying. Naruto's sword sliced through the last intervening clone when he came face to face with a cyclone of water standing ten feet in diameter. Zabuza glared with all the hate he had at the boy. "Suiton: Daibakuha no Jutsu!" The water coalesced into a swirling shield and hurled forward into the blonde, who was overwhelmed and thrown back, far enough that he hit a tree at the edge of the worksite.

-

Sakura saw Naruto get hit, and then saw Sasuke get skewered by a shower of needles aimed at Kakashi, just a second before a red shockwave smashed into him and threw him into another mirror. She screamed in rage and anguish as she ran forward, kunai at the ready, intent on hurting… someone. Kakashi exploded from the mirror-dome with a blazing ball of electric chakra in his hand, before he turned and smashed through another mirror, systematically trapping the ninja so he could destroy it.

That wouldn't be fair, _she_ should be the one to kill Sasuke's murderer, she let out a banshee-cry as she charged forward, eyes seeking an opportunity. There, the ninja poked it's head from a mirror, she let her kunai soar, the other followed it, both were joined by a swarm of angry shuriken.

Haku saw the weapons coming and tried to evade to another mirror, but Kakashi was plunging through the fastest reflection with his chidori, aiming straight for him, he couldn't move, this was it, he would… "NO!"

-

The battlefield froze in an instant, the fearsome missing-nin Momochi Zabuza stood, defeated, all assortment of sharp things sticking through his body, and one very surprised looking Hatake Kakashi with a hand in his lung. The devil grinned and looked over his shoulder at Haku. "M-m-make… made me… proud…" was all he said before he collapsed onto the ground. His eyes were already dull.

The masked ninja screamed, something he/she couldn't understand as he/she ripped of his/her mask and grabbed his/her master's hand. "Zabuza-sama! Zabuza-sama!" The battlefield, was still and quiet, no one quite knowing what to do just then except one.

"Kyuugoshiraeheiki no jutsu." It was said in a dream-like state. Sakura turned to see Naruto wrapping his hands around another girder-sword, muscle on his bare arms flexing to heft the blade as it, instead of he, glowed red. He walked towards them, silently, ignoring the sobbing sounds and came to a halt in front of them. His eyes went to the mask and then the person and he leaned forward slowly. His voice was just above a whisper. "You have interfered in my fight. You have seen me again. I promised you, the next time I saw you, or the next time you interfered in my fight, I'd kill you."

The ninja stood and glared at him, hands instantly full of needles again. "I don't care, I have nothing now, I pity you though- You who lacks a soul. Even Zabuza-sama died, strong because he was protecting someone he loved… You… You'll never be anything but a spoiled little brat who-"

"**I'VE HEARD ENOUGH OF YOU! DIE!**" The sword swung up, and then came down, and clove the gender confused boy/girl into two neat and equal halves. He was breathing hard when he did it, but then he shuddered and grinned, eyes alight. A giggle came over him as he strode out towards the end of the bridge, leaving behind his newer sword, which had stopped glowing.

At the other end of the bridge, as the others now turned to see, was a mob, a raucous gang, and at their head, the shipping magnate himself, Gatou.

Slowly, the sound of clapping cut through the quiet. "Good show! Good show! Wonderful work boy, why don't you come work… for… me? What? What is it?" (3)

-

With a roar of defiance, and the answering shouts of every human being in the village (now all armed to boot) Inari charged. He lifted his mini-crossbow and the very pointy, steel headed arrow aimed high, an arc surprisingly accurate for a child. He pulled the trigger and released the wooden haft into the air, it struck the ground before an already frightened-looking Gatou. It was then that Inari and the villagers, who stood behind him, decided to take in the scene.

Sakura knelt over the body of her one deceased love, the ruined body of Zabuza lay beyond, with Kakashi standing nearby, head lowered in memory and mourning, and the cloven corpse of the boy Haku, the Kyuugoshiraeheiki still laying where Naruto had left them. Finally on Naruto himself who stood before Gatou, the piggish man looked scared. The fear quickly left him and he snarled at the blonde.

"You brat! I was going to offer you a job, but you laugh? Who do you think you are? You think I'm afraid of you, I wasn't even intimidated by Zabuza and he-"

"Is dead… So awful. It's tragic really. I wanted to kill him. Hatake stole that from me, and the damn fool tried to save that little bastard/bitch too, not that it did any good." He laughed and felt calm settle over him, he spoke for everyone to hear, even his 'dead' friend, whom he knew would be waking soon. He wanted the bastard weakling to see his power too (4). "I'll tell you something Gatou, it's really tempting to accept your offer and wipe out everyone and everything here, I like the killing you see, it's something I thrill in. I don't get why I wouldn't, I'm supposed to be a ninja right? Killing for a living. And there's more to it than that I suppose, maybe it's just the fox? Who can say for sure, I don't bother to ask why anymore, it doesn't matter…"

Inari's eyes turned and focused on his hero when Sakura squealed and cried tears of joy, Sasuke sitting up slowly, needles protruding all about his body. He sighed with relief and ran towards him, breaking the formation of the villagers to see that he was okay.

"It only matters that I fight, and kill, and go on killing, so long as there are people to fight and kill, I can be happy. But you see, there are some people who aren't worth killing, I'm not sure why but it wouldn't be fun. I wouldn't be able to see her again if I accepted your offer, but you see, I truly _love_ to kill." He folded his hands together and raised them into the air, a vile, red-orange light gathering into his hands. The villagers, the mercenaries and team seven all focused on him while he grinned. A mercenary, quicker thinking than his fellows, shouted and threw a spear that stuck fast in Naruto's chest. The wooden shaft of the spear caught fire and burnt off while the wound sealed, no obvious trace of the metal remaining.

"So you, Gatou, you and your men will slake my thirst for killing, if only for a while… Take note, _THIS _is what it means to be powerful! Akki Chishichuusha!" His hands parted and slammed down towards the bridge, streamers of red shooting off from his hands, through the stonework and into the waters below, lights and burning paths of energy flowed and drained away the chakra from his hands until none remained. There seemed to be no effect and the mercenaries started to relax a bit, perhaps they could yet kill the boy. His grin, however, widened when he saw their nerves ease.

His hands came together again before him, as if to pull open a door, and chakra surged all around, the killing joy and power staining it so oppressive no one could've moved if they wanted to. His hands begin to pull apart and the ground nearly shook, as water quickly displaced the surges on either side of the bridge were visible already, their reddish hell-lights changing it from mid-morning to darkest night. The surges crested and became solid walls of water, Naruto's arms now flung wide apart.

The mercenaries looked into the walls of water and saw… things. Shapes, monsters of suggestion and idea horrible to their minds, the villagers looked at the boy and saw the monster that he had proclaimed himself to he.

"Akai… Umi…" his breathing was ragged and shallow, his voice was cracking while he spoke, he didn't sound good. "no… Jutsu…" With the final syllable uttered, the water burst forth, the shapes became monsters or tentacles, burning and steaming as they raged snatching and burning or swallowing or just plain melting the mercenaries and their master, drawing them into the sea for whatever foul maw might wait them there. There were screams, everywhere around him, and he reveled in the terror and horrid fear, it was beautiful. The red screamed, he heard something go 'pop' in the back of his brain, and the world left him. (5)

-

Two days after the event, team seven crossed the completed bridge, three bid a fond and sad farewell to their hosts, and their hosts bid a fond and sad farewell to them, along with instructions that the host among them was never allowed in their country again unless he was specifically on a mission that forced it. Kakashi couldn't blame them.

Team seven had finished their first real mission, and were returning with two casualties. Naruto was unconscious, and over their sensei's protests, Sakura was carrying him. She was also simultaneously helping a still-injured Sasuke to move. She glared straight ahead, and thought that it didn't matter if they were stronger than her, because she would still always be there to carry them home again.

Kakashi smiled, a real smile, and put his book away.

-

1: At this point I'm running out of things to do with this chapter, and this arc, which is regrettable to me, but don't fret, there's more to come, I hope you've all enjoyed this arc as much as I have, but there comes a time, you know?

2: Sakura is shallow, she can't see where the fox ends and Naruto begins.

3: Warning: Bad-ass unbelievably and inconsistently powerful Naruto ahead, if you want consistency assume that Naruto uses a combination of the Tajuu Shokushuu no Jutsu and Akki Chishichuusha to slay the army. And that Kakashi didn't interrupt him because Naruto is intensely unstable and wouldn't like it (he coddled avenger-sasuke didn't he?).

4: No, Naruto is not a medical ninja, and no he doesn't really know that Sasuke's okay, however he believes his team won't die so long as he's around so he 'knows' that Sasuke is alive.

5: End: Bad-ass and unbelievably and inconsistently powerful Naruto scene.

Author Note: So ends my favorite arc in Naruto, for those who think Naruto was unaffected here, it may not be terribly obvious but he is a different person now, and it will help when things go to shit later. Mmm… The story's going to M now, I think. Why? Well because I think it should, with the violence and the goriness and the almost-sex-scene(s in future chapters). Sorry if that troubles you but, c'est la gere, quiaff? Anyway, your comments, as ever, are treasured. Mostly., By the way, this is unbeta'd presently. 6086 words, nice eh? Like a double-chapter almost.


	14. Chapter 14

Author Note: Chapter thirteen will be posted sometime this year as a one-shot separate from the body of this fiction… I just couldn't actually write the chapter for some reason. That said, I'm really beginning to get pissed off by a variety of things

At Any Cost

This is the ninja's life

-

Team seven strolled quietly through the lush forests, taking things at a slow and steady pace, a travel gait for ninja. 'For ninja' that is. They were actually leaping through trees at an otherwise absurd clip. And in point of fact they were not being quiet, mostly because there was no need for it.

"Am I the _only_ one who finds this strange?" Asked one of the male members of team seven. The lone girl dropped back to engage him in the conversation.

"Finds what strange?" asked the pink-haired genin.

Sasuke sighed heavily and glared at her. "That we have another C-class mission so soon after the last one got fucked up. Seriously, I thought the hokage would stick us back on pet-retrieval duty… Not that I'm not grateful that he didn't." Sakura shrugged rather dismissively, seeming to accept the situation easily. At his incredulous look, she demonstrated why she was always the brightest female student of their class.

"You're the last Uchiha, and you've activated your Sharingan. Kakashi-sensei is one of the most feared jounin of the leaf village. And Naruto's… condition. Our team would be wasted doing anything less than C-rank missions. Really we ought to be out doing A-ranks like we did last month, but we're only genin. The highest we can do is C-rank missions. We did a good enough job on the last mission to get another one," she finished with a smile. Sasuke's only answer to the well thought out response was a small, smug smile. He was an Uchiha after all. Sasuke either ignored or didn't hear Sakura quietly say "Even if I'm holding everyone back."

Sakura sighed slightly as she realized it was rather easy to sidetrack her two teammates. A simple stroke to the ego and Sasuke was content. A promise of bloodshed silenced any objection or over-thinking on Naruto's part. Kakashi-sensei though, that was something she would have to figure out. He seemed to be fixed on his books, but he could put them aside if he needed. Her sensei's perversion clearly wasn't the way to sidetrack him. She shook herself and cursed her inner Sakura for focusing on misdirecting her own teammates, they weren't threats. They were loyal to her and to the village!

Weren't they?

-

Naruto thumped onto a tree-limb and blasted off of it again, following Kakashi. The expelled chakra forming sandal-shaped craters in the bark and cork of the tree as he landed and took off again, almost the opposite of his sensei. Kakashi-sensei's path was undetectable to all but the most experienced of tracking ninja, even while relaxed. In all honesty, Naruto was bored out of his mind with the whole process. He was looking forward to getting out and slaughtering some more bandits, raiders, ninja or whatever they were. But the tedium of tree-hopping to some little farm was getting to him. A bored Naruto was always a dangerous thing to have around. Worse still was a bored Naruto experiencing a vastly accelerated puberty. Normally his hormones were wildly out of control. Now they were at berserk levels. The only advantage of Naruto being in the state he was in was that his voice cracking and shifting wildly, encouraged him to shut up. And when he didn't, he sounded ridiculous.

Kakashi himself was vastly un-amused by the prospect of having an even less stable Naruto. Since the blonde was a part of his team, he had few enough alternatives. Probably the bigger reason why Kakashi was so unhappy was the fact that he didn't have anything to read. He had set out with three books extra, but Naruto had taken to reading while they traveled and seemed quite adept at it. Naruto could probably learn Kakashi's fighting style as well if he ever wanted to. Kakashi didn't think he would. Naruto's voracious appetite for books in general, and smut of the Icha Icha series in particular, led him to burn through the three books he had brought with them on the way out. Naruto had subsequently borrowed Kakashi's travel books and was working on the last one brought when he came to a halt on his sensei's branch.

As Naruto closed the book and handed the borrowed novels back to Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura caught up and landed on either side of the jounin, both looking to him inquisitively. The cyclopean jounin gestured vaguely forward to a farm before them. "We're here." He gave an internal sigh of relief as he stored the books he brought about his person. Honestly, Kakashi felt naked without them.

-

A few minutes later team seven stood gathered around the farm's owner and senior management. The older man was calmly explaining the situation, how the farm had been threatened on a regular basis, menaced by a band of local mercenaries. Team seven, with the exception of their blonde compatriot was paying close attention and attempting to glean some sort of helpful detail from the details. However, every time the raiders came they scattered as soon as the meeting were over, no one ever took the same trail twice. Sasuke's eyes narrowed, the simple raiders sounded careful enough to be dangerous… of course if they thought that as well then they would be lax in their own hideout.

Sakura was thinking along similar veins and Kakashi wasn't thinking anything yet, in the grand tradition of ninja he was simply allowing himself to absorb the information presented to him before he made any conclusions about anything in the situation. Naruto, while his compatriots were paying attention and speaking with the farm's owner, was observing a small, furry creature.

The squirrel, quite unaware of its impending doom was still deathly afraid of human beings, and bolted away the second it saw Naruto getting closer to it. The blonde frowned at the reaction and looked about for another such creature, the old man briefing the rest of the team evidenced a nervous exasperation at the blonde's apparent disinterest, looking to the jounin. "Is it really a good idea to have that kid out here? He seems kind of… disabled."

Kakashi gave one of his customary eye smiles that did nothing to assuage the man's concerns. "Don't worry about Naruto, he is a space cadet sometimes but I hope for your sake that you don't see him fight." Seeing the unconvinced look, Kakashi shrugged and turned to his students. "Alright, Naruto, over here!" With a disappointed grumbling the blonde meandered back to his team, welcomed by one smile and one distinctly thoughtful frown. "We have no idea where the hideout is, so this is a good chance to get you three to train in search operations. What's everyone's thoughts?" Sasuke spoke up first.

"We should follow along their trails. No matter where they go each time, they aren't ninja and they have to get to their hideout eventually." Kakashi nodded but Sakura didn't seem to like the idea.

"I disagree," she said, shocking her teammates that she'd disagree with the infallible Uchiha prodigy. "The best course of action I can see is to stay in the trees and scout likely places in the general vicinity. We can split up and cover more ground that way, maybe even get back before nightfall, then when we regroup we'll have specific targets to investigate as a team tomorrow." Again Kakashi nodded, but this time Sasuke looked unconvinced.

"That would take longer than just following a path."

"And it'd be safer."

"We'd be fine if we were in one group."

"If we follow their path, they might know we're coming."

With a yawn, Naruto stretched out and flexed briefly. "Whatever, fuckin' decide what we're doing, I wanna kill something."

The Uchiha prodigy glared at Naruto and Inner Sakura got a mischievous glint in her eye. "Hey Sasuke, if we go your way, we'll be fighting the enemy head-on, and Naruto will be the one fighting. If we find their base my way, it'll be you sneaking in and taking them out in proper Uchiha fashion… With myself supporting you, of course." He appeared to mull the matter over for a moment before nodding.

"I suppose that there's no need to hurry this mission up"

Sakura gave an internal sigh. _He's too damn easy._

-

Naruto hopped to the next tree branch before him, already looking for the next spot, and all the while looking for another little fuzzy creature like the one he'd seen before. He knew that Sakura and Sasuke expected him to do the same as them. Namely to look for the enemy's encampment, but Naruto knew that he had no skill in seeking out enemies. So he wouldn't bother trying.

Kakashi was back at the farmhouse, ostensibly to protect the place in case the raiders came while they were away. Far more likely it was because he wanted them to train their own skills. Though the jounin hadn't said so out loud, he was secretly proud of Sakura. Even if her manipulative nature were a bit blatant, she had all the makings of a truly excellent kunoichi. He might even have to put her in touch with Kurenai when they went back to the village.

But back to Naruto, whose search was less than avid. He was looking for more little fuzzy things, his fascination with them stemming from two experiences back in Konoha before the mission. The first was rather explosive, and the second was fascinating to say the least. He'd had to kill the monstrosity but it had been interesting to see the diminutive creature try to kill him for the brief time while it had lived. _It almost seemed to hate me for making it alive._

He stopped in his 'patrol route' as he spied another of the fuzzy, bushy-tailed creatures he remembered as squirrels. He wouldn't let the little blighter get away this time, and grinned savagely as his chakra lashed out and surrounded the animal. He held it aloft in the air at the end of a long chakra-lash and observed it for a minute before forcing the red chakra into it.

The squirrel squeaked and thrashed as the foreign energy invaded its body, and began to burn it up from the inside out. Its thrashing rapidly slowed as the body grayed and aged. The moisture evaporated from it and the small mammal leathered before finally exploding in a dry mass of brownish chunks. (1) Naruto frowned at the depressing little thing, and shrugged as he carried on. He used not even a fraction of his power and the animal had just simply exploded! Tut.

Why couldn't anything become great like the rat he'd found in an alleyway? Kyuubi had power, and by association, Naruto had power. They could pass along that power, but not all the time it seemed. What was the difference? There had to be some kind of key to it. The two squirrels he'd found so far had suffered similar fates, so perhaps it was species. The blonde shook his head slowly. Species didn't _feel_ like the answer. The rat had bitten him, both squirrels tried to run, perhaps it was the animal's reaction?

As the ninja leapt through the branches he let his mind wander on just what it was? What could it be that his chakra did to things and why.

-

Sasuke's eyes rolled over the ground; he didn't activate his Sharingan because it wouldn't help with the current situation. So far he hadn't seen any significant evidence of non-shinobi passage, or hell, any evidence that shinobi had been through the area either. He frowned and sped his pace, he wanted to find the enemy and do it quickly. This was a mission after all, and there was a constant threat to the people running the farm as long as the bandits were out, unchecked.

It felt strange to want to protect people. It was a feeling quite different from what he was used to, the nearly sociopathic compulsion to gain power. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he had begun to sleep soundly again. Finally rid of nightmares of the night his family died. At first the nightmares had been stronger after returning from Wave country, making him lose much sleep. Then suddenly, the nightmares simply stopped. He didn't know why and he didn't really care. Sasuke felt better and more at ease than ever before.

Whenever he thought about it though, his thoughts turned to his team. They were the only thing really different since the whole Wave cluster-fuck. Kakashi seemed… subtly changed. More protective, somehow, of Sakura and Sasuke. Kakashi-sensei acted more like he was a teacher to only them. To Naruto, Kakashi was an aiming mechanism. Sasuke noticed it in the village, when not forced to be around him by circumstance or obligation, Kakashi avoided the blonde like he was the living avatar of the plague. Meanwhile he'd actually begun joining Sakura and himself for things outside of training. As if he were trying to become a second father to each of them? Sasuke wasn't sure why it bothered him so much, but it did.

And then there was Sakura. Sweet, innocent Sakura. She had killed before him. Two kills and he still had none. Sasuke wasn't sure whether he felt relief or something else, that she had tried to go to Naruto first after her kills. And he didn't know why he felt relief that Naruto rebuffed her. There was a rapidly expanding quality to her that he had difficulty understanding. Looking back, Sasuke could see Sakura seemed to guide his hand in a number of things. He didn't so much mind that she was acting as a balance against some of his urges. That, again, was a surprise.

Was Sakura using some kind of mind-jutsu on him? Was he becoming weak where she was concerned? There was more to the issue than Sasuke felt terribly safe contemplating, while searching for an enemy outpost. He paused suddenly, seeing the first sign that he might be on the right trail in the form of a singular brown thread trailing off of a spider web near the ground.

Suddenly uncaring of whether Sakura was influencing him or whether he became weak, Sasuke grinned with satisfaction. Anyone else would have smiled, but as Sakura had put it, he had to do things in the Uchiha way. And Uchiha did not smile.

-

Sakura sighed heavily, hopefully the enemy camp had been on Sasuke's assigned vectors. Her own turned up no sign of the enemy, and Naruto wouldn't know a trail if it walked up and slapped him across the face. Actually he'd probably try to fight it, and then he'd probably kill it and anything else in the forest. Sakura sighed quietly, maybe she should have asked Kakashi-sensei to cover Naruto's vector and had the blonde stay at the farm? Unlikely that their sensei would have gone for it. At least this way if neither she or Sasuke found it, then it'd be easy enough to finish the last trail.

Leaping to the next branch she gave a brief thought to Kakashi. Sakura still didn't understand the jounin all that well. As time went on that lack of understanding was becoming a source of genuine paranoia for the girl. At the same time she felt like she was being stupid for fearing her sensei. After all, Kakashi-sensei kept trying to go and do things with her or Sasuke or both… _Come to think of it_, she mused on her return path, _sensei hasn't been doing anything with Naruto-kun. Is he afraid of him? Naruto could easily destroy Sasuke and me but he'd lose to Kakashi-sensei. Right?_

Sakura shook herself from that train of thought. It was entirely academic after all. Naruto would never fight against the team… so long as they could provide him with another target. In the ever-shifting politics of Konoha, there was never a shortage of enemies. Naruto would be a loyal teammate, and, if things continued, Sakura might one day count him as a friend. **_You mean love-slave right?!_ **Sakura made a disgusted noise, provoked by her inner persona's fixations.

Not that she'd necessarily mind…

-

Uzumaki Naruto was struck with a certain realization as he stared before himself. He had not reached the end of his patrol route, having been sidetracked by an interesting sight first. So here he was, coming to certain realizations and gathering chakra to test that his suppositions were indeed correct.

_That bear is fucking huge._

The creature before him was indeed 'fucking huge,' as he so crassly articulated. A fair two meters long from ursine rump to threateningly curled-back snout. It stood on all fours a fair meter and a quarter off the ground, and had truly fascinating eyes of a natural golden-brown color. The fur, which jiggled as the fat and muscle beneath moved, was a beautiful amber color. Its claws, raised menacingly in the air, were black as pitch. Just as Naruto would have it.

_Magnificent animal. So brutal too, the way it sniffed at me and how it holds itself. It knows nothing can touch it. It can kill anything, it knows it ha-_ His thoughts were cut short as his head jerked to the side, the greater portion of his face torn away by the powerful swipe of the bear's meaty paw. A second swing tore through his chest, but as soon as his ribs broke, the searing red light burst from his innards and engulfed the bear while the nin healed.

Naruto's smile (when his face had finished reconstructing and his chest was whole again) was wider than any time it had ever been. Save for when he first fought Hinata, of course. The bear was still alive, though its life was a senseless mockery of the word. Naruto's chakra had invaded, violated, twisted and remade the bear. The beast's body had kicked into overdrive, and in some cases beyond it. Half of its upper lip and cheek were missing, and weeping white-and-red pustules surrounded an eye, both eyes had become sickeningly green, like a corpse left out too long in the sun. Its claws had become even larger, the sharp hooks on each barbed and elongated, seemingly ended in fingers now.

The chakra continued to gather in the bear and the fur turned fire red, then dulled and evened to a more natural tone. Finally he could feel that with all the power he was throwing into it, the bear was becoming even stronger. It had reached the apex of its form, but Naruto held out the supply just a moment longer. There was a flash of understanding in the bear's sickly eyes, and then the chakra flow reversed and slammed full back into the Uzumaki boy. Naruto was knocked off his feet and sent into a tree.

When Naruto woke again and took in his surroundings, the bear was gone, but he still sensed it somehow. On the ground only a portion of the bear remained, next to the curling remains of half his face. Naruto shook it off and grabbed the remains, the bear's great, shaggy pelt, and headed back towards the farm.

The blonde smiled slowly, today had been… Productive.

-

End Chapter Fourteen At Any Cost

AN: You know, every fucking time I write a story, there's a chapter missing… Gah, whatever. Review, jah?

1: Islagatt would find this amusing if it happened to a person, but is disgusted by it happening to an animal, on the fundamental grounds that the human chose to be there and the animal didn't. The only reason this is in the story is because it needs to be for the sake of Naruto's ongoing character degradation. I do not support abuse of animals in any way shape or form, and if you do abuse- with no intent but cruelty- animals and I find out, I'll be joining or forming the lynch mob. Capische?


	15. Chapter 15

At Any Cost ch15

Hey, I got a different beta for this chap, better, worse, what?

AN: Why? Why, why, why, why, why?! I understand that the vast majority of Naru-tard writers are young female humans, with their disturbing fascination for Yaoi. This does not, however, excuse the concept which appalls me so…that is to say…why are they writing men as getting pregnant from homosexual coitus? WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS GREEN AND SLIMY IS THAT ABOUT?!! Anyone with a basic working knowledge of the bits and pieces (vital knowledge if one knows that there _are_ bits and pieces, and that they can fit together) knows that it don't work that way, and if they don't know that, they really, badly need to get their fucking head examined.

Breakfast in blood

I do not own Naruto.

-

The search had been as reasonably successful as it could have been without the aide of actual tracking ninja or tools. In Sakura's mind that meant that the enemy camp was likely in Sasuke's search area because Naruto had no interest in doing legwork, and her own attempts had come to naught. In Sasuke's mind it meant that he had found the most likely location of the bandit's camp, and that he - with Sakura's support - would be taking down their targets in the morning. Kakashi was impressed with his students, and praised them for their efforts…honestly he had thought that they would get an inkling of the trail and he expected that he would have to have Pakkun follow the rest of the trail…instead the ninja trainees had found the enemy's outpost in only a few hour's work.

Naruto had the simplest view of all, though, he honestly didn't care if they were successful or not. If they were, then things would be okay, and he would march forward, scouring the very earth before him until they found the enemy, and then he would destroy them. If they found the base, he was free to continue his experiments…or at least to figure out why his chakra was feeling so odd since he had consumed the bear. That was a source of minor irritation to him; he couldn't understand why his chakra felt so out of whack…even his constant tap on the burning red hatred of Kyuubi's power was feeling hollow and impotent. No matter what the case was, until he figured out how to fix his problem, fighting was not an option.

-

It was late evening, following a meal of meager quality and appallingly large quantity. It would have seemed that the farm's women folk, who ran the things inside the buildings, were used to cooking for large groups, and upon hearing there were more people visiting, they had cooked a disproportionately larger amount of food. Sakura was polite and flattering, as was Kakashi, even if the food wasn't great. Sasuke was almost friendly with the women…and Naruto was so quiet that it was hard to notice he was there. That was normally the case, mind you, but his chakra, normally bleeding into the air around him, was conspicuously absent from him that night.

Kakashi seemed not to care. He was focusing on his other students mostly, and wanted this mission to be for them. That bothered the other students on some level…Sakura far more than Sasuke, as she was really the only one to pick up on the preferential treatment.

Although the Uchiha heir had observed the treatment their sensei gave them, the preferential treatment was something he was used to and so it bothered him less than it might have. Even so, he noticed the almost pathologically careless attitude the man had towards his other student and considered it distasteful, if not outright disturbing. It reminded him a lot of how his father had used to treat his brother and himself.

Sakura however took it much harder than her teammate. For her, team seven was her first family, her blood relatives had been relegated to the role of second the instant she felt the lifeblood of the two samurai spill out onto her hands. For her surrogate Father to so blatantly disregard by another member of her family was almost painful to the pink-haired Kunoichi.

Now that the meal was over she found her way towards Naruto…Sasuke, as always, following simply 'for lack of anything more interesting'. Sasuke was scared of Naruto sometimes, but there were other times when he felt compassion verging on pity for the boy. Finding him sitting, staring blankly out into the night was one of the times he felt for his teammate, and soon enough both actual ninja sat on either side of their teammate. They were about to speak when Naruto clenched a fist tight and tried to channel chakra, what should have been a crushing display of strength fizzled and flared around him, tickling the other ninja's senses.

In spite of herself, Sakura giggled at the sensation, the sound alerting Naruto to his companions. He looked first at Sakura, surprise on his features, then towards Sasuke, then back down to his clenched fist. Though Naruto refused to admit it, he wanted to be alone until his strength and his power were returned. He felt fragile and weak, and his hand started to shake every now and again without the Kyuubi's deadly power. He didn't care if they saw it, but he felt threatened by them.

The other two quickly picked up on this and it surprised them all when Sasuke interrupted their thoughts. "Don't worry Naruto. You're probably tired…don't know what you were doing out in the woods while we were working, but I guess it wore you out." He paused and looked at the stars. Sakura actually smiled genuinely at the gesture her teammate had made.

"He's right. Even if it turns out to be more than that…it's okay to let us take some of the work off of you." She tried to place a hand on his shoulder but the blonde unconsciously flinched away from the contact.

He looked up at her, a sort of desperate confusion in his eyes… as though he were trying to persuade himself more than her. "But… I like what I do, I like the fighting and the killing, that's where I was born to be, you know, weapon of the Yondaime, all that?" He shook his head, trying to draw on Kyuubi's power again…he needed power, he needed strength, his mind was swaying this way and that without it. His teammates both had to look at him, confused.

When being honest with himself, Uchiha Sasuke looked at Uzumaki Naruto and saw the worst of his village, a boy raised to think that he had only power and strength…that killing and surviving were all he needed. Sasuke of course, knew better. He remembered vaguely, a face-splitting grin and his own slight smirk when he saw the blonde, and then the peaceful boy had been destroyed and in its place was the unstable monster. His village, his home, the people he protected had done it to the blonde and he didn't realize why or how until they were placed on the same team. To Sasuke, Naruto was everything he could be if he had gone wrong, and if only because of that, he had to believe that he could be saved from himself.

Sakura knew that Naruto didn't need saving though. He was power given a physical form, in her mind she held him high on a pedestal, a throne of darkness atop a tower of hatred, and she placed him as the reigning lord of all her darkest, deepest parts, even if he never knew. Throughout her time in the academy Sakura had regarded Naruto with a passing contempt, the last year of the academy brought about stunning changes in her opinion of him, she had gone from a passing dislike to a vague creeped-out feeling. However, all that had changed when he was put on her team.

His blunt admission of what anyone else would have considered a personal secret, and the apparent way he reveled in the power and the fear he drew from others; these were things she looked up to…in some way she could feel tingles in herself every time she thought about it. Sakura was a deeply conflicted individual though as is normally the case with someone who has a second personality; both aware of one another. The voice in her head wanted to become like Naruto…she herself wanted to be with Naruto and both still desired Sasuke as well. But to see Naruto without his power and strength, looking almost fragile…perhaps he was human as well, beneath all those other things…maybe she could one day become that powerful, maybe one day she could gain his affection and let him be human for just a little while. Or be a power so that he never had to be again.

She just didn't want to see him as he was.

-

When nighttime rolled around, they found out only three sleeping places remained in the house, fortunately the barn had space. Kakashi pointed at Naruto, Sakura pointed at Kakashi, Sasuke pointed at Naruto as well, but only after seeing Naruto raise his hand. So the blonde grabbed his pack and headed off into the barn, followed by his teammate's eyes. Sakura called out to him as he headed over to the other structure. "HEY, NARUTO! If you need somethin' just ask okay?"

He waved at her and kept on walking to the barn. Sakura sighed and retired with the other members of her team. The trio was safely stored and tucked away within their modestly private rooms by the time Naruto pried open the barn's door.

Though he was not normally one for observing things, Naruto felt very strongly about sleep, and as such he took in with great care the environment in which he was going to try it. There was precious little in the barn…several large, indistinct piles of hay, a large block of wood with an axe sticking out of it, and a pile of neatly cut logs off to another side. And that was about it.

The blonde shrugged somewhat dismissively and chucked the bear's pelt into the barn. It fluttered back down and spread smoothly over one particular pile of hay close to the wooden block and the axe sticking out of it. Naruto shrugged slightly; even if he was pissed about having his chakra screwed up, he wasn't going to complain about sleeping next to a sharp, choppy thing.

He shucked the remaining clothes he had…his blood-stained tatters that he called a jacket, the ripped up shorts that had once been pants, and a t-shirt that was anomalously good condition. He folded them up neatly and placed them beside the door before wandering over towards the pelt and throwing himself down onto it for a good night's sleep.

-

(1) Naruto stood up from the scraps of flesh, pulling a face at the vile gastric juices that lingered on him. He looked about himself at the long bits of muscle and scale, and decided he really didn't like snakes. _A snake? I was in a snake's stomach?_ Dream Naruto leapt up into the trees though, ignoring Real Naruto's thoughts…he had to find out where in blazes his team had gone off to…

_What the fuck is going on?_ The forest blurred around Dream Naruto, or maybe it was a jungle, he wasn't really sure that he was going the right way, but what choice was there? He ran as fast as he could, the thought of his friends _Friends…?_ being in danger, spurring him on faster. _What had that explosion been anyway? _ wondered Dream Naruto.

There! Dream Naruto sensed Sasuke's chakra, and soon after, Sakura's. _Sakura doesn't feel that weak…_ He entered the battlefield and looked down from his treetop perch, watching his team and some strange pale man with a weird tongue…

"SASUKE! Sorry but I…"

-

The dream ended abruptly when the door opened and five men slipped into the barn, letting a thin beam of predawn light strike Naruto's face. He didn't move just yet, for a moment confused…his chakra wasn't reacting yet and despite his summons, Kyuubi wasn't answering him. This was all wrong, and Naruto was beginning to panic. The men all brandished sharp objects as he finally sat up…two had swords, one a pair of knifes, another a spear and the last a large, unpleasant looking hammer with a spike on the back.

The blonde spotted his kunai pouch with his clothes on the other side of the room but he couldn't possibly reach it. Would his body heal without the chakra overdose? He didn't know…he was unarmed, he had no chakra to use…his eyes darted left and right as the first man was now only five feet away, and there he caught sight of the only handy weapon…a glance back at the raider, closer now…too close, he had to move, had to get away, now!

"HA!" He lunged forward and the men jumped back; he was a ninja after all…and then he bolted to the side, rolling and snatching the axe from its block. A quick roll back away to get some space and he hefted the axe up in both hands, giving it an appraising glance in the brief moment he had, and then favoring them with a grim look…no smile, but the light of sickness in his eyes once more.

The men faltered suddenly and Naruto growled before he dashed forward into their numbers. His first swing cut off a raider's arm just above the wrist causing blood to spray from the wound as he cried out in shock. The raider stumbled away, another of his allies already rushing, this one raising his hammer as Naruto drew back to strike. The blonde left one hand on his axe near the head and grabbed the hammer's haft, denying the man the chance to hit him, and with a surprising amount of muscle, the axe clove his cut open, again splashing both himself and Naruto with gore.

The blonde pushed off from the body and smashed aside the stabbing spear that came at his face, the force twisting his body around in time to see the other swordsman's blade descending towards him. With a bestial roar, Naruto's upswing smashed against the Katana's sharpened edge, sparking as it broke through the steel with far greater inertia. The fragmented blade flew away as the enraged genin chopped down again with a brutal ferocity. A wound opened up from the man's shoulder, through the ribcage, down through his abdomen, with the heart and lungs torn open by the dull blade. It gushed out ever more blood…the blonde only licked it from his lips as he spun around and cut through the spearman's waist diagonally. Tendon and flesh ripped, bone popped and then broke, and the axe continued on through the groin, continuing out of the body and into the other leg just below the hip. The scream he released was horrible…it was beautiful to Naruto but he hated it too, it was strange that way. The axe lifted again and he brought down onto his chest and neck, smashing his trachea and spine with a ruthless blow.

He stiffened suddenly as he felt a knife dig at the base of his skull, another stabbing into his torso, probably a kidney. The knives stuck fast and the man wielding them backed off suddenly as Naruto turned around, grinning savagely. He turned and tried to run but Naruto hurled himself forward and leapt, bringing down the axe brutally while smashing the skull, brain and spine. He landed on top of the corpse and hauled the bloody weapon from his torso cavity where it had buried itself…gore splashing again as he tore it free…and the blonde had to pause for a split second. He then, nodded to himself. Naruto turned and left the barn, still carrying the axe and dressed only in the blood and his boxers.

He entered the farmhouse without his normal grin and sat down at the table they ate dinner at last night, bowls of oatmeal out now, raising his axe and swinging it hard into the floorboards as an impromptu storage. His teammates looked at him with a mixture of shock and disgust, but he took it in stride and ate his oatmeal in silence. Another five minutes went by before Sakura said something. To her credit her voice was completely stable.

"Naruto, there's a knife in your head." He paused and finished his spoonful of oatmeal, reached behind himself and felt the knife handle. He brought his hand back in front of himself again.

"There is, isn't there?" He went back to his oatmeal as Sasuke and Kakashi sweat-dropped at the reaction, and Sakura shrugged dismissively. He wasn't dead…probably annoyed that he had to use such an unrefined method to kill whoever attacked him.

"Just saying." She said calmly. Sasuke stared at her for a moment, before turning to his food. They had enemies to kill still and he couldn't afford to get distracted by his stabbed, gore-soaked teammate.

-

AN: I mean seriously, who the fuck would even think that writing it was a good idea to start with? I can understand wanting the drama of having an accidental kid, but face it you fucktards. That. Does. Not. Work. Pieces fit one way and not another. Only by conjoining pieces in the manner in which they were biologically intended (bear in mind here that I do not hate gays on the basis of their sexuality, but accede that the act is indeed, against natural manner) can little weeplings be spawned. END OF STORY. Feel different? Have an idea about it? Go ahead and say something. But I'm fucking irritated by absolute morons.

(1): Please bear in mind that in canon, they went straight from the Wave Arc to the Chuunin exam.


	16. Chapter 16

AN: Okay, there was a long rant here, but it wasn't gonna be posted anyway. Short version is this, sorry that the chapter's so late but my computer fried and I lost almost everything. Hopefully later chapters will come sooner. Please enjoy.

At Any Cost

Chapter Sixteen-who-the-fuck-cares-if-I-skip-an-arc-or-two-?

Seriously, do you know how long I've waited to be at the chuunin party?

I don't own Naruto

-

"Hey kid, watch where you're going!" Naruto looked up and sniffed the air slightly before grinning a slow, mad grin and loping off in the general direction of the complaint. He chewed thoughtfully on the steamed pork bun as he meandered around a fence corner. By way of reward he got to see a guy in the most ridiculous getup he'd ever seen, holding up a kid with either a bucket, a helmet, or a pair of underwear on his head.

He had to laugh at the cat-suited man's makeup, which fortunately for the special child, was distraction enough for a kick to the wrist and a bolt away from the resultant drop. The cat-suited guy looked back towards the source of the laughter, behind which the brat was now hiding. At the same time, his sister further down the alley also looked over their newcomer, although with different eyes than her younger brother.

Naruto looked different now, he still wore the tattered orange shorts that had once been his pants, and his feet had a pad of leather taped to each one in place of sandals or shoes. It seemed he had forsaken shirts altogether now, as all he wore on his upper body was a bear's pelt, the head of the beast slumped back behind his own and two long arms of fur draped over his front in a crude vest-assembly. It was held in place by a pair of daggers that had been stuck in by a retreating bandit who thought it might actually hurt him. The blonde giggled a little bit as he remember how the man's face had contorted in fear and agony while the akki chishichuusha consumed him from within and the bear ate his flesh. And the Kyuubi's accelerating chakra had spurred another three inches into his frame in the time they had been away.

While the giggling was disturbing, it was the seal that caught the attention of the two suna genin. It was ornate, intricate, and obviously not working right if the genin's obvious lunacy were any indicator at all. He took a step forward as the giggle faded away and a manic grin split his face and his eyes went from shining blue to a brighter and more disturbing azure. "Foreign ninja, how fun… You don't exactly smell very strong, but maybe that makeup is supposed to make me underestimate you? And the girl over there, the thing on her back is supposed to trick me into thinking it's her main weapon, isn't it… Well you could keep me entertained for a few hours at least."

_M-makeup? What makeup- _"HEY!" Kankuro's indignation momentarily overrode his sense of self-preservation. "This ISN'T makeup! It's war-paint, it's tradition, it's fuckin' manly I'll have yo-" Naruto's chakra spiked suddenly and there was a faint screaming sound in the back of Naruto's mind as he ripped chakra away from his tenant. Kankuro's protests were silenced and he was reduced to a small whimpering sound as he felt the power wash over him. The sound drew forth another giggle from the psychopath while the simple-looking axe across his back slipped into his hand. By now the small child behind him had run for a safer person to hide behind, and the two suna genin were ready to turn tail and flee for all they were worth if they thought it would do them any good at all.

They were, however saved from having to make that difficult choice by the sudden sand and wind appearance of Sabaku no Gaara, the third and most powerful member of their team. Naruto paused suddenly and sniffed at the air as he pulled another steamed pork and vegetable bun from his paper bag of breakfast. Gaara fixed him with the most intimidating glare he could manage, and Naruto, still smirking, took a bite from his second breakfast lump.

The tension mounted as he chewed thoughtfully, and beads of sweat popped out on Kankuro's head by the time he made a swallowing sound. He lowered the bag and bun and returned Gaara's glare, overpowering the red-head's killing intent with his own more flavorful killing joy, washing the sickening sensation over his two siblings and himself to the point of nearly bringing him to his knees, and then it let up suddenly and he was apparently happily eating again. Gaara kept his eyes on him and motioned for his family to leave, they paused for a moment, uncertain before the redhead looked over his shoulder at them and smiled softly.

"It's alright, just get out of here, and let me worry about this." It was painfully obvious that Temari had no wish to leave, but the sand kunoichi was given no choice as her brother picked her up like one of his dolls and ran back towards their hotel. Once he was sure they were out of the way, Gaara looked back to the Kyuubi's container. "Are you going to kill me?"

Naruto shook his head and took another bite, now working on his third bun; well actually it was the eighth but…

"Why aren't you going to try?" The blonde didn't answer at first, opting instead to finish his meat bun and fish around in the bag for another. There wasn't one so he crumpled the paper vessel up and threw it away. Gaara was used to fear and people walking on eggshells around him…it hurt every now and again to realize that people would never trust him for what his father had done to his mother…but such was his life. He never would have believed before that it was preferable to anything, but here he was, having his time wasted by a man who could kill him just as easily as breath.

"No point to it, you're weak, and pathetic, even if there's something Kyuubi says about you, I don't care." The blonde headed off in another direction then, whereupon a pink-haired girl dropped near to him, close enough to talk but obviously she wasn't getting very far in her conversation. Gaara watched as she smiled and walked just a little behind him, clearly aware and accepting of her place. _That… bastard… he doesn't even realize what he has_, he thought to himself as he walked away.

-

"So there you are, Naruto." The blonde looked over his shoulder at the girl, now just a couple inches shorter than he, and she smiled at him. He shrugged dismissively and continued along his way, ignoring her as she came up alongside him. "Hey, come on, Kakashi-sensei called us all to the bridge, said he had some kind of announcement to make to the whole team."

"I don't much feel like it, bored right now," he answered and stretched his arms out, resting his head against his hands as they folded up behind him. Sakura smirked slightly as she pulled out her trump card against the boy.

"Well alright, he mentioned something about a chuunin exam..." She grinned when he turned about to face her with a confused look.

"What's that?" he asked, and Sakura had to refrain from slapping her forehead. Truly, she loved her teammates and would support them until the end of the world, but sometimes they were just fucking dense.

She kept the unpleasant thought from her face though and answered him. "Just a series of tests, lots of fighting, and if we win, we get to be chuunin and don't have to take D-rank missions ever again." Naruto vanished in an explosion of chakra as he went towards their meeting place. She smirked savagely. "This is getting too easy."

-

It hadn't even been a question, Kakashi had just explained what the chuunin exams were, that they were to be evaluated for the skills to be chuunin. He'd simply told them where to be with their forms filled out and they'd be in. There was no question that Sasuke wanted to go, and Sakura wanted to support her teammates, that was the primary focus for her now. Naruto scribbled in his signature where it was needed, singing the paper with a red-glowing fingertip and headed off towards the building, intent fully on waiting the several odd hours 'til the exam began.

Sasuke smirked to himself and wandered off on his own, not objecting as Sakura decided to wander along with him. In another time and place, and when she was someone else she might have followed for the sake of asking him out or to gain reassurances that they could take and pass the test. Presently though she was far more jaded and cynical. The Kyuubi container and the last Uchiha? There wasn't a village council in existence that would fail them (presuming of course that village council was the one from whence the two exceptional genin came). Knowing that, and having real, genuine faith in 'her boys', she knew the chuunin exam would be an experience she wouldn't forgive herself for missing.

So, the reason why she was walking alongside Sasuke now was simply because she wished to make idle chit-chat about what they might expect. That was somewhat easier said than done however, as she couldn't quite find a way to open the discussion while Sasuke's expression kept changing. She fancied herself an expert on her two seemingly unpredictable teammates…people who she found to be really quite easy to understand if not relate to…but watching Sasuke's eyes fire up with expectation, confidence, then anxiousness and finally falling to fear, then starting all over again with a determined look, resetting the cycle. The walked and she considered it, picking apart the expressions she had witnessed.

He was looking forward to the chuunin exam; obviously, she could see that herself, and he had complete confidence in his skill, as she did, most likely from the incredible success of their last mission. Ah, perhaps that was it then, thinking back on it, Sasuke had been drifty and spaced out after his first kills just as Sakura had been, but as was her vow, she had silently been there for him and given him a solid place to rest. Still, killing didn't seem to be a thing he enjoyed, or perhaps the easiness of the killing had upset him. Still, he looked like he was psyching himself up to go to it anyway.

When he started to look anxious again she interrupted the cycle. "Hey Sasuke, do you figure our graduating class will be there too?"

He stopped suddenly, as if only just noticing she was there, and blinked in confusion. "Huh?"

"At the Chuunin Exam. Remember, Kakashi-sensei said that only as much as thirty three percent of the graduating genin would be allowed to become active ninja. I haven't actually seen any of our old classmates around lately what with all of our training and the missions we go on nowadays. Naruto doesn't talk about them much, if at all, so there's no telling if he knows they've passed or not..." She looked over to him to see he was deep in thought on the issue. After a few minutes he shrugged dismissively.

"It doesn't really matter, I bet they passed, and it'd be... amusing to see if any of them have gotten better." The genius rubbed his chin thoughtfully before changing course, Sakura steered along with him. He answered her unvoiced question. "Going to that shop Naruto's always getting steamed buns from." Sakura nodded slowly, and Sasuke had to smirk, _she is so easy to read..._

-

The test began at ten o'clock a.m. local time the day after they had been given their entrance forms, and Naruto had been waiting in the small lounge just outside the testing room since he signed his forms. By eight that morning he was hungry, if not particularly tired (a perk of his demonic prisoner), and quickly becoming irritable. He was saved when a bag was placed in front of him, specifically between his face and the book he was reading. It was a bag that was full to bursting and smelled delicious.

He looked to the person who gave the generous donation and was surprised to find Shino sitting down beside him, pulling a small orange book out from the unfathomable depths of his pockets. Naruto slapped his book shut and reached for one of the precious morsels of soft dough and ground meats and veggies. It was a gesture communicating thanks, but the emphasis of it came across more as 'I wish to bear your man-babies'. To which Shino snickered and inched away from his friend.

Had Hinata or Kiba heard the noise, they might well have had a nervous breakdown, but Naruto was actually quite used to the sound of Shino snickering, even if he didn't hear it very often, it was a sound one had to get used to. It was like the mandibles of an insect clacking, and if you didn't get used to it you'd be too creeped out by if to appreciate the sound. With no one around, Shino continued with his un-Shino-like behavior and took the conversational initiative.

"I heard you had a second C-rank mission." Naruto grunted in answer and wolfed down another bun before elaborating.

"We did, I was bored, found a bear and my experiment succeeded though…" His grin became downright lupine as he stroked the pelt-leg draped over his shoulder. Shino nodded slowly.

"My team had one as well, Hinata insisted that we be given one, and the Hokage permitted it. I believe Hinata found it to be... a liberating experience. Kiba was not at all pleasantly surprised however." He paused and Naruto could feel his friend's smirk. "I believe you would have been amused." The blond laughed pleasantly, and dug about the bag for another meat bun.

Time went by in this fashion for another hour and people began to filter in, and slowly shift past the two rookie Genin. Naruto remained largely unimpressed, save for one brief note, a silver-haired and bespectacled genin Naruto thought might be worth fighting, but one he'd undoubtedly end up destroying. Nine thirty came and Hinata sat down shyly beside the demon vessel, speaking faintly even though there was no one around now to see her true self.

"H-h-hello N-Naruto-kun, Shino-kun," she smiled at them both and Naruto gave her a disinterested sigh.

Shino had long since gone silent but he inclined his head to the girl, his normal acknowledgment to her morning greetings. However he also tilted his head just so that Naruto understood his question. "Hinata-chan, this is the chuunin exam isn't it? I just want fun, that's the only thing I care about, it's not a mission like when I got to fight Zabuza. If you try to thwart my fun...If you fight less than you can…" he looked to her and red seeped from his pores in an angry display.

Shino backed away suddenly, not used to seeing his friend become aggressive, and while Hinata was intensely aroused by the prospect of Naruto becoming angry and dangerous, she was not at all pleased, however, that she was the present target of his wrath. Naruto wasn't like this, or rather he was, and that was why he was perfect, but not to her, not in this way...

"If you fight less than your full potential, then you're not worthy of my time." He finished the last steamed bun from the paper bag and crumpled it up, giving Shino a parting smile as he got up to go find his teammates and drag them to the testing room.

If the examiners hadn't thrown him out the first time on the grounds that 'his team wasn't with him', he would have simply headed in on his own. As it was he passed Kiba on his way out, the dog-nin jumped away from the still red-glowing berserker and then hauled ass to find his team.

-

It was a bad day to be Uchiha Sasuke, Sakura firmly decided when Naruto appeared from the school in front of them and glared at him. It wasn't entirely his fault that they were so late, but Sasuke had decided it was absolutely essential to gussy up in his best ninja outfit…which also happened to be the blackest things he owned. Funeral clothes meant to be worn to political assassinations.

Ninja were wonderfully creative weren't they?

Still, the amount of time he spent on his hair and fixing the outfit just so, and the fifteen minutes of practice scowling he'd done in the mirror... Sakura wondered if his fan club would regard him as they always had should they ever learn about his frivolous side. Still, it was never good to piss off Naruto, and she didn't want the Uchiha dead, so she headed off the confrontation by smiling conspiratorially at the blond.

"We were trying to make it more entertaining for you Naruto! If we didn't get here until later, we wouldn't have any time to size up the competition, so it'll be that much harder to fight them!" The blond stopped for a moment, his wrath diverted quickly and his red aura dissipated as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Well... that makes sense then, I guess." He turned on his heel and strode back inside. "Come on then, let's be there."

The others quickly followed after him but Sasuke gave Sakura a look of confusion. "I thought you said that we shouldn't split up yesterday so we could get a good idea of the-" he was cut off as she hissed abruptly and jerked her head at Naruto. "Ohhh..." He snickered quietly and then continued following, mind resolving that Naruto was just like Sakura, easy as hell to read, and easier to manipulate.

_Just appeal to his ego and give him someone else to think about._ Mused Sakura as they entered the exam room. No one noticed the fact that Sakura's smirk and Sasuke's were almost identical, even if the former's was somewhat more hidden.

-

End chapter sixteen-who-the-fuck-cares-if-I-skip-an-arc-or-two?

At Any Cost

Islagatt: First I was going to do a Christmas release of chapter fifteen. Then I figured, ahhh fuck it. Then I was going to do a team eight arc, and said ahhh fuck it. I couldn't figure out a mission for them. So here it is, chuunin party time. Sorry for the delay but my comp died, and I restarted this chapter four times.


	17. Chapter 17

At Any Cost

Chapter... somethin'

Author Note: Been a while folks, sorry for that, but a lot's happened, including three computer death/rebuildings, finally resulting in the far more advanced but dangerously unstable variant of my computer currently active. There's no real way to excuse my long absence, so I won't seek forgiveness. Anyway, you didn't come here to read my rather angsty musings, you came to read a story right? Well, here it is.

Oh, and for the record, I appear to have lost the documentation containing proof of my legal ownership of Naruto. So from a legal standpoint I don't. Damn.

-

"Alright you maggots, sit down and shut up!" Naruto couldn't help but grin a bit as he found a seat. This man was radiating killing intent trying to scare everyone. Mostly it was working but Naruto just found it exciting. It was a sensation that for him that always accompanied battle and it was something extraordinarily pleasing to his warped senses. Blue eyes gleamed with their sickly light.

At length the examiner walked by and set a paper on the desk before Naruto, a pencil was already present. He was explaining this portion of the exam. "You will take this Chuunin Selection Exam in three portions, the first you have with me, and the other two by different proctors. For this portion you will be given a paper test."

He had finished passing the papers out and came back to the front of the room. "There are a few rules to go along with this test. First, your team will start with ten points, if you lose all your points you will be removed from the test along with your teammates. You can lose points by answering questions incorrectly, or if any of my assistants" here he gestured to rows of pair chuunin against each wall "catch you cheating. Wrong answers lose you one point, and cheating loses two. You have forty five minutes for the first nine questions. Then you will be given the last question. Begin!" Immediately there was a flurry of paper-moving sounds as the entire classroom turned over their tests.

Naruto looked over the questions and found himself confused by the intricate equations and complex cryptographs. Paper test taking was not his strong suit. Granted thinking in general was not the strong suit of most ninja. But Naruto refused to be most ninja. He paused for a long moment, turning his test paper over to the blank side and closed his eyes to think clearly. Then it came to him. Most people were going to get everything wrong unless they cheated in some imperceptible fashion. Which was not something all ninja were able to do... The boy grinned at figuring this examiner's game so quickly. He flipped his paper back over again and set about cheating his way to success.

To the shock of all who knew him, Naruto was scribbling away fiercely and quickly for the entire duration of the test. He did slow, almost at the end of his paper when he was stopped suddenly by the examiner's booming voice. "OKAY! Pencils down everyone, time for the last question." Naruto glared up from where he was and radiated his own killing intent, but the other man ignored him. He gave a childish, petulant huff and glanced about, shocked to realize that many had been removed from the room.

So, it had been about cheating then. People had been cheating all over the room and sabotaging other people's works so they'd be noticed and removed. Interesting. Naruto pushed the musings aside however and glanced back up to the front of the room to find out hat was going on.

"Before I give you all the final question, I'm going to explain the special rules for it. First of all, you get to choose whether or not you can take this question. If you decide you won't take it, you can leave right now and try again in six months. But!" The examiner paused for effect, "If you decide you _will_ take the question, and get it wrong… You will be banned from ever participating in the chuunin exam again. For the rest of your career." There was a brief second before the room erupted into shouting.

"What about the test we just took!?!" Naruto didn't bother to glance at the speaker or listen to the answer as he mused quietly to himself. The whole thing had been a test to see if you could cheat covertly enough to not get caught. A great skill for a ninja to have, but most powerful ninja wouldn't have that kind of skill. They focused more on combat. Effectively this first test had removed most of the ninja who Naruto wanted to fight from the running. He growled low and flared Kyuubi's chakra menacingly around him. He grabbed his axe and savagely slammed it into the desk in front of him, drawing the classroom's attention.

"You took out all the strongest people from this test already! It's nothing but a cake walk now! Well screw you... I'll kill you later for denying me my fun. But for now the rest of us have a test to pass, and none of these stupid mind games of yours are going to deter any more from fighting!" He snarled unpleasantly at the Jounin, who openly scowled back.

This was a tactic that Ibiki had never seen: making everyone too scared to go against him. Not because of his own intimidation tactics but because this psychotic boy would kill them if they didn't. This one probably could too, it was the Kyuubi container after all... He ignored the outburst at some length and looked around the room. "Anyone else want to quit?" There were no hands. "Fine then, you all pass."

Ibiki had been hoping for another round of shouting and screaming and demands for an explanation, but none came. A pink haired girl was examining him closely, she probably understood already, and the last Uchiha was giving him a cold hard look of triumph. He opened his mouth to offer an explanation anyway when he glanced at the window and noticed an indistinct black blur rushing towards it. He asked himself silently '_What the...?Oh damn' _ Then Mitarashi Anko burst through the glass, and unfurled a massive banner proclaiming her identity.

"ALRIGHT KIDDIES! IT'S TIME FOR THE SECOND PORTION OF THE EXAM, FOLLOW ME!" The short black haired woman was wearing a long tan duster, mini-skirt, fishnet shorts and shirt, and cloaked in an aura of general craziness. Her beaming face and twinkling eyes slammed into the examinees like a massive brick, dispelling the gloom and fear for a moment.

For Naruto this had the dual effect of removing everyone's fear of him (bad), and making everyone in the room confident and eager to fight as the levity brought on by the comical entrance distracted them from real matters (good). Though he didn't think of it in those terms, it was nonetheless an internal struggle. Finally he went with the 'getting to see a woman wearing fishnets a duster and probably as turned on by battle as I am' option (horny). Kyuubi in the back of his mind supplied that she was very definitely one of the most attractive females Naruto had ever met. He didn't torture the fox for the unwanted comment, at least not right away.

"Huh? Forty five? You left fifteen teams for me?" Ibiki, who had been thrown under the banner, looked up at her, very ostentatiously not looking up Anko's skirt (he'd made the mistake before) .

"There were a lot of extraordinary competitors this year..." He cast a glance at the jinchuuriki in the room and Anko's eyes widened for a moment before her grin spread even wider.

"Well, no matter, I'll cut them down by at least half in the next exam!" From the brevity, a modicum of anxiousness returned. Anko's grin became a smile, downright predatory in nature. "Alright then, follow me everyone!"

-

Sakura and Sasuke quickly fell in behind Naruto again as the remaining fifteen teams followed after the unusual woman. Feeling oddly hostile about her, Sakura cast a glance at Sasuke and asked for his opinion. "So Sasuke, what do you think of this examiner, I mean the first one was a little intimidating but this one's-"

"Insane." Sasuke supplied. She nodded a bit and he frowned slightly, no more than usual though. "I'd have to say I agree, but she does seem competent as well. Overall she reminds me of Naruto, just without the urge to fight everyone."

Naruto looked back at the pair and grinned a little, his eyes were near-floodlights of their sick blue light. "Nope, she's just like me, but not as strong, and she hides it!" He turned back to the front just in time to catch a kunai along his cheek and sinking into the ground behind him, between his teammates. The proctor Mitarashi Anko was now standing behind the blonde, a kunai held over his heart menacingly.

Thanks to the influence of the overeager Kyuubi and Naruto's ready acceptance of its offered power, the chuunin did not have to lean down to lick off the blood from his cheek he was almost at her height and appeared not as a twelve year old without enough food. Instead he stood more like a sickly thin youth of indeterminable age, well on his way through a malnourished puberty.

"Not as strong, eh?" Anko giggled and licked at his now bleeding cheek. Except that when her tongue came away there was no more cut or even a mark of it, and Naruto grabbed the arm holding the kunai over his heart.

The effect of Kyuubi's chakra seeping into the air around him, and especially around his palm was instant. There was a sizzling sound and a smell of burning flesh, Anko had to bite back a wince as the Kyuubi-child seeped his infectious chakra into her arm. Naruto understood now, a little bit about the pain others felt, and he delighted in it. He wished he understood it better, but that was the way of things. Against the genin's attack, Anko initiated her own. Her fingers wrapped about the small of his neck, piercing the skin. There was a light coating of poisonous fluid over her nails that seeped into his flesh and entered his nervous system. On most men it was enough to kill them. A kind of slow agony ripped through Naruto's neck and into his lungs…but he did not fall. The sickly smile never left.

The battle of wills continued, Naruto's breathing became slightly labored, and Anko felt as if half of her body were on fire. The pain screamed in both their minds, Anko's doubly where the Kyuubi's chakra invaded the old curse seal that spread its own fine roots throughout her body. By now the grown woman was trembling, biting onto her tongue, and Naruto had a monstrous grin stitched across his features.

Anko broke off suddenly from the boy, choking and gasping as she tried to expel the fire in her blood. Naruto's grin stretched impossibly wider as he felt the fear rise from the ninja around them. That too was something he found enjoyable. He ignored the fact that his own breathing was thin and raspy as his demon mended his ravaged lungs. Naruto's voice called out as he marched, metallic and thin but definitive.

"Not as strong."

-

Subaku no Temari was curious about Uzumaki Naruto, a young man by her estimation, who didn't seem like much. In her eyes he was a strange, awfully malnourished looking boy. All frailness, skin and bone, but he moved with power and something like grace. All about him was an intensity that was too much for anyone, even hardened Jounin. But some shinobi to find even that attractive. Temari tried to look around to see the other ninja's reactions but like them, she became enthralled at the scene too. Temari saw it in his eyes, that intense lust, a desire and determination that couldn't be swayed or slowed.

It was frightening.

Her brother Kankuro, did find it frightening and went to great lengths to dissociate himself from any interest in the boy. After all, he'd been afraid even of their little brother at first. Which brought up another point… Gaara was the container of the Ichibi no Tanuki, a beast that had made his life a nightmare since birth. It was sealed into him, killing his mother and merged it into his body and soul. Except the sealing wasn't precise and not all necessary preparations were taken. It was messy and incomplete. An amateur job with dire consequences.

Things hadn't ended with a seal that would one day almost assuredly drive Gaara mad. No, they had continued to drive him insane. His uncle took him in and showed him the only kindness he would ever receive. The rest of the village knew of his condition, and were all terrified of him. It didn't help that sand swirled and stirred around him at all times, seemingly possessed. Then one day their father had given the mission to Gaara's uncle to kill him.

The attempt failed thanks to Gaara's demonic inheritance, but something was exchanged after the fight. Simple words but they had a profound effect on Gaara. When he found out he had a half-brother and sister, Gaara had gone to them and told them in no uncertain terms that he would protect them. They didn't get a say in the matter. But he'd been kind, courteous, and always tried to be a brother to his siblings. Temari had reacted by smothering him with sisterly affection, something he responded to very well. Kankuro also relaxed around the boy and they became a family. One big happy dysfunctional family.

In this environment, Temari was no stranger to power and dangerousness in people. Her team's mission record went as a testament to that fact. Even more she had lived in constant exposure to the single most dangerous human in Sunagakure no Sato since very early in her life. That rather inured one to the fear of death. She was hardened further by the routine maelstroms of destruction and slaughter that had become their missions. Temari was confident in her skills and knew her limits. If she was honest with herself, it was the fights when she wasn't sure if she could win that had really got her blood pumping.

Temari knew that she could not defeat Uzumaki Naruto though, but still...

Rallying her thoughts she looked away from the bear-pelt and daggers-in-the-chest boy and focused back to the front of their group. She wondered briefly, what it would be like to fight the boy, with a smile she looked forward to the chances in this exam.

-

Anko had schooled herself back into her broad-grinning mask of overconfidence and cheerfulness by the time they arrived at their location. "Alright then everyone! Welcome to the second portion of your Chuunin Examination, before we get started, there're some forms you're going to need to fill out!"

At this a pair of chuunin from the first exam came forward and began passing around papers and clipboards with pens. One genin asked what exactly they were signing.

"Oh nothing major really, just forms that say if you die it's not my fault!" She beamed casually at them and a few blanched. "There are going to be many deaths in this test, and not necessarily from other teams. This is training area forty four, the Forest of Death. You will start at your gates momentarily and will advance towards the tower in the center. You have three days, but there's a catch!" Anko took a moment as people began signing their papers.

Her eyes drifted to Naruto who was scratching something into the paper with a red-glowing nail. She turned back to the rest. "Once you turn in your forms, you will be given a scroll, either an 'earth' or a 'heaven' scroll, and to get into the tower, you need both. You are forbidden to look inside your scrolls during this test. You will have to secure another scroll from your opponent teams, but you aren't guaranteed to get the right one just for beating any team. This is a test of all your skills, and there are no restrictions, get to it!"

Naruto listened and a dim idea slowly formed in his mind. He grinned savagely as Sakura returned with their scroll. "Hey Sakura, gimme the scroll."

She looked at him suspiciously. "Why?"

"'Cuz if I tell everyone what the scroll is, then everyone with the other one will come after us!" He grinned ecstatically at his own cleverness.

It gave Sakura and Sasuke a panicked moment but Sasuke quickly came up with something. "Wait! But if they know what it is, then half of them won't go after us!" This made Naruto pause, and Sakura picked up on her teammate's lead.

"Right, if we don't tell anyone what we have, then they _all_ have to come to us!" Naruto nervously rubbed his chin for a moment but didn't respond. Sasuke sensed the moment slipping away.

"Naruto, think of it like this, if we tell them, then they'll know that you're strong and they won't come after us at all. You're scaring them away. But if we pretend to be like everyone else, then they're going to think we're weak because we're young, right?" At this Naruto nodded slowly and then shrugged, marching off towards their gate. Sakura sighed once he was out of earshot.

"Geeze, he's getting worse..." Sasuke nodded.

"I guess we have no option, we have to pass this exam and hope we both get promoted." They shared a look as it occurred to them that they were now thinking as a paired unit. That had disturbing implications for both and they quickly followed after their wayward teammate, leaving the moment and the awkwardness behind.

A bell rang and the three marched into the forest, Naruto leading the way with a palpable aura of excitement and eagerness. After a half hour of walking steadily into the darkening jungle, his enthusiasm dimmed and sunk to the back of their ranks. He was now beginning to regret the scene he'd made in the test room and again with the second examiner. Naruto became depressingly sure no one was going to attack them now. After another half hour of walking, with Sakura and Sasuke arguing details back and forth about the tactics to use, and how to get to the tower, Naruto called a halt and ducked behind a brush.

The two continued debating at length as Naruto answered nature's irresistible call. However, this was to prove a boon to the two later on, and to relieve much of Naruto's unhappiness. He had just re-zipped the ragged remains of his shorts when suddenly a brick smashed into the back of his head.

Now for a normal person this kind of blow would have been debilitating. Most likely given them a major concussion. Most genin, it would have stunned and possibly knocked them out. Same went for novice chuunin the test expected applicants to be.

It was not a test that considered the unique physiognomy of a jinchuuriki like Uzumaki Naruto. Rather than stumble or collapse, Naruto simply turned around. Eagerly, in fact, his face lighting up with an expression of unadulterated pleasure. Finally some action! The hidden-rain ninja who was now holding a rock in his outstretched arm was staring at him in surprise and a mild fear. Then the ninja leaped back quickly, reacting to the sudden slash of the blond's axe, and the accompanying growl of glee that went with it. The nin's hands moved rapidly through seals as he flipped away. Landing on a sturdy branch some distance away, he called out the name of some technique that Naruto didn't quite catch.

In no time at all, the clearing was full of copies of the ninja. Naruto's grin stretched over his whole face and his glimmering eyes glowed their deranged blue. He charged forward and cut through the clones, receiving for his efforts several kunai lancing into his back. He staggered forward and turned back to face what should have been a number of broken clones. Instead every clone he'd chopped with his axe had formed two or more instead.

The nin's voice rang out from the forest as Naruto stared in confusion. "Do you see now? This is the hidden rain's unbeatable technique! Give up now. My clones are like a hydra and you will never be able to defeat them all!" His laughter rolled through the clearing and Naruto's quickly answered it as he threw himself back into the battle. The clones swarmed around him and he lashed back out at them with frenzied strikes of his axe and lashing blasts of pure chakra. Naruto noticed that the chakra actually blew through the clones effectively, and so cut back on them, he was enjoying himself in spite of his now porcupine-esque look.

_What the hell is this guy? I've spent more than half of my kunai and shuriken trying to bring him down but it's like he doesn't even feel them... Shit this jutsu is taking a lot out of me too, I'll have to end this soon. But how? _ Naruto let out a triumphant roar as he brought down his axe again, chopping cruelly through three copies and spraying their brackish aqua green ichor into the air. Six clones formed form the three, but the blond just cut them down as well. Turning here and there, kicking, punching, bashing and chopping. Finally breaking his boredom.

Ironically, this tactic was extraordinarily effective against the rain nin, who had to maintain each new clone with his own chakra. The clones couldn't do enough damage, even with the help of his sniping enough to stop the berserk leaf-nin. _That's it!_ The rain-nin congratulated himself for a moment on his new plan and dropped to the floor of the forest. His clones scattered into a massive retreat over his former position. Predictably the blond snarled his rage at his prey fleeing and followed after at surprising speed. Just as he passed over the spot the nin had dropped, Naruto was thrown backward in an explosion of light, sound and metal shrapnel.

The rain nin dispelled the clones and moved towards the slumped body to reclaim his spent weapons. Also to look for a scroll. He was however stunned, when the youth suddenly rose to his feet, his front charred and torn with weapons. A red mist was collecting around him and the wounds were quickly vanishing before his eyes. He was treated to a view of the deeper madness in the Konoha ninja's eyes as the sickly light glowed from a ruined eye-socket. The orb reforming even as he watched.

"My god... Doesn't anything stop it?!" The laugh that answered seemed to say 'no'.

Naruto for his own wanted to try something different, and so reached up to his knives, and yanked them out roughly, dropping them to the ground, and grabbing up the pelt as his red aura turned brighter. He laughed maniacally as he cried out "KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!" and hurled the pelt forward. For a moment the rain-nin considered his enemy insane. But then the pelt puffed into smoke and a rather large, mostly-dead-looking bear was charging towards him. Its eyes showing the horrid agony that propelled it.

The bear had a weeping pustule for one eye and the flank on the other side was green, furless and fleshless, bleeding infected blood onto the ground. Rooted to the spot as he was, the rain-nin couldn't react even when the bear roared a spittle-filled howl at his face… and bit down onto his skull.

-

His teammates knew better than to question what was wrong. Or what had taken so long when Naruto returned to them covered in scrapes and dried blood. Both noted his grin and pelt in place again. At this point Sasuke spoke up. "Hey Naruto, if we go by the trees, and reach the tower sooner, there's a chance that we can wait for other teams to come by and fight them." Naruto considered this, then hopped into the trees and continued along his path. His teammates followed him, not quite used to the quietness after a kill.

The trio continued along unmolested for several more hours, and as darkness finally fell a figure emerged onto their path. It had voice like oil and silk, leaving the listener with a distinctly unclean feeling when they heard it.

"Kukukuku, hello there shinobi-san, I have been waiting for you all..." The hidden grass ninja tossed away his broad-brimmed hat and smiled eerily. The smile was one Naruto could recognize. It was the same sort of expression he got when he was coming close to something he wanted. Naruto had worn it for a while when he thought of Hinata, but from this person it seemed darker somehow. Naruto unslung his axe, knowing as he did that this man was looking for something his genin cell had. He wanted to take something from Naruto, and that simply couldn't be.

"Ohhh, you look ready to fight me, Naruto-kun, are you sure that's wise...?" The nin seemed confident in his abilities, and why not? He lashed out with his killing intent, as if to warn off the jinchuuriki and his team. The feeling was so intense that Naruto had never even conceived of it before. There was a genuine twinge of fear as he realized that this man's skill and raw energy were enough to…enough to make him even stronger than Naruto.

His teammates knew none of what Naruto was thinking though. The moment they saw the man, both had also sensed something off about him. Exposure to Naruto's power had enlightened Sasuke and Sakura into the nature of strangeness, and they had now the skill to recognize the strange in other people as well. It was only when the killing intent from the enemy rolled off them that they realize how bad the situation was. When the snakelike ninja flared his killing intent, the two stood, suddenly unable to move in the face of the awesome might. The fact that Naruto wasn't moving, they distantly noticed, meant he must be in the same condition. Unbelievable. Sasuke and Sakura slipped quickly into a panic mode, the shinobi discipline leaving their minds in a flash. A sound cut off their thoughts-

Here it was, a fight that meant something. A fight that he had no way of winning. A losing battle from the start, to a foe that would tax him to his limits and further. Fire pumped through Naruto's veins at the thoughts and his mouth became a gleaming gash. His eyes glowed with sick fury and all the glory of the sun.

Naruto's screaming, euphoric laughter echoed into the night as he flung himself forward.

-

End Chapter Seventeen

Author Note: I started this chapter because I felt that I had to. I finished it because I've been looking forward to this fight since very early in the story. Prepare, for the ultimate techniques of psychotic Naruto, prepare to fight... At Any Cost.


	18. Chapter 18

AT ANY COST!

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN! FINALLY THIS CTHULU-DAMNED FIGHT!

BOHAHA

And remember kiddies, Khorne says I don't own Naruto, so listen to the god, right?

Oh and lastly, listen to music that invigorates you when you read, I'm hearing Overclocked remix right now.

-

Orochimaru bit back a snicker as the blonde charged straight towards him, his eyes wild and glimmering and his axe already held out, begging for flesh to cut. He knew this type all too well of course, graceless and simple. He had fought such persons many times before, the fools who got off on the thrill of a fight. To a man they were reckless, leaving themselves open to any kind of attack if it meant they could hit their opponent, clones were useless against them, as were any restraining techniques, one had to simply overpower them.

He reminded himself to take his foe seriously this time though, it was after all, the jinchuuriki of Konoha. And with that thought, his musings flew out the window and he returned to the present, just in time to lazily step back from a frantic strike of the blonde's blade. The metal edge sank into the wood and then the tree branch exploded away from it as he freed the blade and hurtled forward for another downward diagonal strike, similarly evaded.

Naruto's feet blasted bark from the tree each time his feet came down again and his axe tinged the air a sparkling red in its wake, but the serpentine man across from him only moved with a bemused grace and wove to avoid the strikes. Naruto's mind flashed back to Zabuza, who dove away from all his attacks, or Kakashi who read him and aborted all of his motions before he knew he would do them, but both had to put effort into it when he wasn't as strong as he was now. He was terrified at the ease the man moved with even against his fastest and most powerful self, he was being toyed with!

Orochimaru grinned suddenly and let himself be struck, the body melting into a pool of mud as a kunai hurtle from the forest to the blonde's left, smashed into the head of his axe and shattered it, sending the object hurtling out of his grasp. He recognized the look of shocked pain in Naruto's eyes as his prize weapon was destroyed and scattered on the winds, and was almost impressed with the speed of his recovery as he ripped the daggers from his chest and hurtled them, blade-first and trailing tails of fine red chakra straight at his location.

Even so, it was the easiest thing in the world for the snake-man to kawarimi with another block of wood and relocate in the brilliant crimson flash that lit the forest. He smiled suddenly, he hadn't even heard they boy's harsh cry of 'Kuchiyose no jutsu!', that brought the undying bear before him now. The bear raised its deformed, half-rotted nose to the air and launched with a decidedly unbear-like motion towards Orochimaru's position, Naruto himself pursuing immediately after drawing his kunai. The sannin afforded himself a split second's reflection on the boy to this point.

He had an extraordinary healing factor and a large amount of chakra, but he seemed reluctant to use it, his violent shaking was reducing the efficacy of his grip on the kunai, was it fear? No, he doubted that, the wild passion in his eyes and the flush over his body put a damper on thoughts that he was afraid, or that the fear was moving him. The vest was gone now, temporarily sacrificed in favor of the bear and it in turn left an unobstructed view of the seal work of the yondaime hokage.

He smiled as he was suddenly given the key to removing the blonde from the game should the technique even prove necessary. The spiral itself was the contract, and the symbols above and below, earth, air, fire, and water appeals to the core principles of the world itself to keep the beast locked away. And the contract limited. He preferred different principles for his seals, but that would come later. For the time being he had a bear to deal with it.

"Senaijashuu!" He shot an arm forward with sudden speed and the self-same grace, and a quartet of deep purple snakes flew out from the cuff as if called into existence by the motion. And perhaps they were at that. They each bit into the bear's legs and carried him back from his jump into another tree, the explosion of dust and debris momentarily obscuring any sight of it. Naruto seized the moment and landed at the sannin's exposed left side, driving forward with his throwing knives, and finding himself swiftly parried by the other's right hand, which now stretched bonelessly across his back to block with a kunai of its own.

Naruto was off balance from the lunge and parry now, and Orochimaru spun about to face him, a graceful foot lashing out from his spin to hurl the genin back into the tree's trunk. Naruto dragged himself back out, streams of red smoke curled up from nicks and cuts, and from the bruise the disguised man's foot had left, but the gleam in his eyes brightened even more now and his manic grin tore at his cheeks. The blond started to giggle with unbridled glee again.

Naruto drove forward again, and just before the serpent parried again, there was a sudden tug from the snakes in his arm, Naruto's kunai drove forward, and were suddenly wrapped together as the obscene man's tongue shot out and trapped his wrists, lifting him into the air and twirling him before sending him back, hurtling to the forest floor on a collision path with nothing but the soft earth. He released his snakes and in a single smooth motion sent a tagged kunai into the bear's diseased belly. The animal erupted in a splatter of flame and gore, and the tree rocked quietly before falling over.

Allowing a smile at his handiwork, Orochimaru turned back to the scared genin, immobile from his blast of killing intent. _No,_ he thought suddenly, reevaluating their expressions, _they're shocked, they expected he could beat me. _He chuckled his merrily mad laugh, _fools._

"Hmm... well that was good for a warm up, but now I'm wondering what to do for some exercise..." The effeminate man's eyes moved to Sasuke, who immediately broke free of the paralysis by shuddering in revulsion. Sasuke was able to identify the enemy as a male, he had a keen eye for such details, and having been on the receiving end of a lot of desiring looks, he had come closer to understanding them than most people were. This look was not that of a creepy, sexually-oriented stalker.

There was something else this man wanted, it wasn't their scroll, he'd have demanded it by now already. And with that skill he couldn't be a genin. That meant he infiltrated for some other reason, he wanted something from them, what?

Sakura seemed to unfreeze the moment Sasuke had, and the two again shared a momentary look. He looked forward again and read her hand movement through the edge of his sight. _Retreat_. He frowned and said no. She repeated more insistently, and this time he signed back _impossible._ She shut up for a moment and then moved subtly closer to him. The silence that dominated the scene was only interrupted by a distant, muffled 'thump', it was probably the tree crashing down.

His thoughts went to Naruto, who had fought... differently somehow, faster, more desperate, like everything he had to lose was on the line when he moved. Maybe it was, but the other man had not been surprised. They were going to die so he figured he might as well ask.

"Why did he fight you differently?" This seemed to surprise the man, but then the surprise became amusement. He actually laughed.

"Why? Don't you understand your teammate? I can see you don't. It's all a game to him, when he knows he can win he doesn't care, I've seen it before. It happens to powerful, young shinobi, they get it into their heads that they can't lose, and fights become only a fun diversion. I give your friend marks though, he was powerful... for someone his age. But it would take a thousand years before someone like that was ready to face me!" He cackled.

Sasuke frowned suddenly and Sakura openly snarled. "Then your perception of time must be different from ours, because there's no way someone with no power like you could destroy Konoha's most powerful ninja, the Jinchuuriki, Uzumaki Naruto!" that would have been a wonderful moment, Sakura thought, for Naruto to appear again, bathed in Kyuubi's power. But he didn't.

Orochimaru was still smirking. "You're so young, power comes from skill more than pure potency, and he simply doesn't have the potence to overwhelm my skill... Someone like you Sasuke, could even become skilled enough to destroy him, with those eyes of yours..."

"That's what this is about, you want my eyes... Then you can rip them out after you kill me." He said coldly.

Orochimaru gave a mock pout, it was disturbing. "Now Sasuke-kun, that's no way to talk. Why you could even run away now while your friend is down there. I'll be sporting, if you run, I'll go down and finish him off to give you a head start!" He grinned with fake sweetness. The other members of team seven hardened in an instant.

"Those who fail their mission, are trash. But even so..."

"Someone who abandons a teammate-

"IS WORTH FAR LESS!" they chorused together, ignoring having done so.

"So bring it on, you freak, we won't abandon Naruto even if he doesn't see the world as we do, even if he doesn't want to see us as anything but people who may one day have power. He is our teammate." Orochimaru frowned again at this and started moving through hand seals, causing the other pair to tense.

"How disappointing, from what I knew of you beforehand, I thought you'd happily accept my gift so that you might kill your brother, but I see now that that fool sensei and idiot teammate of yours have corrupted your pure mind and purpose. Do not worry Sasuke-kun, I will give you strength, and help you regain your mission, to set you back on your path. The path of the Avenger." Sasuke tensed as his hands stopped moving and his canines lengthened to fangs and his head suddenly moved... wrongly.

Orochimaru's neck lengthened and shot across the space between the group towards the now rapidly sealing genin. Sasuke's attack faltered by the time the attack reached the half-way point as both he and his teammate stood transfixed as a seething ocean of baleful red light erupted from the forest floor, spanning all directions around them as far as the eye could see. Orochimaru's neck stretched further, obscenely distant now from his body, mouth wide open and eyes fixed on Sasuke's neck.

Another pair of fire-bright eyes snapped open from the sea of fire though, and from the chakra the baleful jaws of a fox reached out, tall and massive and suddenly closing on the space around the snake man's impossibly elongated neck.

-

Branches and twigs broke and snapped under his weight as Naruto fell from his battle, his opponent was beyond his expectations, he had already had to call out more of Kyuubi's power than he wanted, he had to save some of his ability for the other comers right?

The loamy forest floor broke under his impact, sending a shower of detritus into the air and drawing out a nasty 'snap' sound from his back. Naruto screamed actually, in sudden pain as his spine broke. He worked his mind in around the pain, without a target to turn to it only hurt, and that was no fun... Standing up he put his arms back into place for one of his favorite seals, or he tried to, and discovered that he couldn't move.

This was wrong, the fight couldn't go like this! He couldn't just die from falling! Rage sparked up in him as he decided that this fight would need all the power he could bring to the table, all at once, if he was going to enjoy it correctly. Like a bank of fog the red chakra rolled off of his prone form, and lifted him up, set his spine and mended the bone, nerves repaired and set him back to standing. He glared up at the canopy, and ignored the snapping sound of the tree starting to fall towards him, his hands already locking into the snake seal.

He could feel it now, the insane power that filled his body. He felt it boiling in his arms, the single and overpowering voice in his mind, his singular will to destroy, and as the power flowed more intensely with his seal's guidance, the quiet of the other voices leaked in, other thoughts, other places, like the indistinct roar of a crowd. It was fantastic. It was euphoric, there was no greater pleasure than this kind of power, his voice got caught up in his shrieking laugh once more as his power surged forth.

It cycled over and over again through his arms, flowed out of his seal like fire from a great, hellish furnace, he flashed his hands through a few other seals and glared up again. "Aka Umi no Jutsu" The red sea had been a technique to part the waters in wave, now it turned the air into an ocean of demonic wrath, he could feel everything in the burning ocean, but it wasn't enough. He opened his eyes and fixed up far above with his baleful sight. "Misetearu..." The world opened up to his sight again, in strange and magnificent colors of chakra, fiery reds fleeing from Sasuke's lungs, and a writhing purple filling the enemy's neck. "Umi no Kuchi!" The burning pits of white in the sea of red guided the quickly forming giant mouth that formed, reached up from the depths of the chakra-sea, and snapped viciously shut on the man's neck.

Or it was supposed to, he yanked himself back far too quickly for him to reach. Naruto snarled as the mouth melted back into the mass of chakra but did not break his gaze. Far above, the berserk voice called out to the audience and the opponent. "Don't think you can ignore me yet! You will fight, and fight, and fight until I cannot move!" His hands moved in their second pattern, so natural to him that it was without thought, as his eyes lit up with an idea. Tentacles of Kyuubi's chakra lifted up from his body and screamed through the flowing currents of fire, he formed more seals but held the technique off for a moment, then hit it. "SHOKUSHU BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" His hundred eyes hit the surface and broke through, turning to glare as one body at the villain.

-

Orochimaru withdrew his neck with lightning speed and glared into the morass below. This complicated matters, but all he had to do was find the boy and kill him directly. The eyes stared right at him and he stared back at them. "Don't think you can ignore me yet! You will fight, and fight, and fight until I cannot move!" The villainous bastard took a step back, the boy was completely mad, he was gone in the insanity that drove his kind. He cursed to himself, that made the whole situation more difficult. Below he sensed motion, and then a thousand eyes burned to the painful bright white as the main pair disintegrated, from the depths rose now innumerable bodies, red fire given the boy's shape and rising on a pillar of rage that descended from their midsections into the sea below. He cursed, this was some new kind of technique, one he hadn't even thought of. Without a warning the clones shrieked their banshee-like wails and swarmed for him, their tentacular origin shifting and writing as it came up from the mist.

The hundreds of clones swarmed and dove, encircled, moved, attacked and swam away from the snake-man, who was hard pressed to handle them. Simple weapons did not work, they were pure chakra, and only chakra could hurt them, naturally, he had turned to using earth techniques, making charged weapons of the tile-like tree bark and sending it into the tentacles, the clones lost cohesion in the assaults and the chakra fell back into the sea below, making Orochimaru wonder if he was even hurting the enemy at all. He caught sight of the blonde emerging from the ocean now, the tentacles all streaming back towards him even as the countless bodies pursued him, their touch burning his clothes, slicing through branches and trees.

He wrapped another kunai and hurled the explosive metal at the enemy's main body. Maybe that would stop it!

-

Naruto wanted to get back to the fight, he wanted to so very badly, but how could he get back up? He looked at the red mist and willed it to solidify before him. At length a staircase of fiber-thin tendrils appeared, enough for the waifish blonde who barreled up the improvised ladder to the surface again, along the way he spotted something useful and grinned as he remembered a jutsu he loved. A detachment of his clones hefted up the felled tree and carried it along below him. Orochimaru spotted him, _yes,_ he grinned and thought_ come to me, fight me, let this battle be reality!_ All he received though was a kunai in his chest. He frowned at it for a moment before it exploded.

-

Sasuke knew what would happen now, he watched the explosion blast apart his teammate, leaving only a ruined bloody stump, navel and below mostly intact. It cut off the clones, but the mist below didn't go away, the odd man actually had to land and catch his breath now, letting his guard down. Stupid.

Fire sick with madness and lust so intense it was palpable collected again, and rebuilt Uzumaki Naruto, bone, nerve, cartilage, muscle and blood restored, and his blonde hair fanned out again, his eyes sick with the blue and evil light once more. It hadn't taken even a minute.

"Kyuugoshiraeheiki! Tajuu Shokushu no jutsu! Shokushu Bunshin no Jutsu!" The rapid fire stream of jutsu poured out of the demonically inclined genin, and from the mist of hateful crimson rose the felled tree, stripped of branches and bark, blackened, but still largely intact. The new tentacle-clones lifted their master and carried him towards the trunk which pointed at Orochimaru ominously. "Akki Karada!" The ocean dimmed and power collected into Uzumaki Naruto, it collected around him in the impossible armor he'd worn near the border of fire country in their first C-class mission.

Sasuke remembered what the armor had done to him, and felt his guts twist as he thought of what they'd do to the unbeatable man.

-

Orochimaru glared in desperate exasperation. _I have no choice, I have to seal the demon to end this onslaught, then I can get Sasuke-kun's attention..._ The bright ball that was Naruto fell into the tree trunk he'd pointed at himself, and he wondered if he'd even have to fight him, but the clones all followed too. This whole mess was just confusing, not even Jiraiya thought as sideways as this boy.

_What can he do from the inside of a log anyway?_ "TE!" _Oh no._ The chorus had come from every clone and the original simultaneously, and a single orb of sickening fire lashed out at him, the trunk had split and shattered into a million pieces as it left. Small consolation as the clones drifted out of the central body and lost much of their cohesion, they fell over the area in a net of fiery death, cutting off retreat. Orochimaru wasn't going to give the brat a moment this time though.

"Ryuuka no jutsu!" He breathed a stream of fire that had no effect on the barrier. "Suiton: Daibakufa no jutsu!" the barreling blast of water came into contact with the demon armor and exploded into steam. Naruto's arm came back. "FUCK! GOGYO FUIN!" _SLAM!_

Naruto's armor exploded and fell away, the red sea below vanished, and his eyes held naught but pain and surprise as five new symbols burned onto his seal. He careened painfully into a tree and fell to the branch in a stunned stupor. His body was completely normal, and for the first time he was alone in his mind, and without Kyuubi's terrible power. He felt weak, fragile, sane...

Orochimaru stared at his charred hand, it might recover but it was useless for the moment. What kind of power did the demon have? If he hadn't known the sealing technique... He would have died!

He could die, there was pain, he didn't have power, there was no way he could fight, and he didn't care that he couldn't fight. Suddenly everything he'd accomplish lost meaning, there was sense to everything, his teammates were his friends, and Sakura was a wonderful girl, Hinata was an unbelievable woman, whom he actually loved- "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He struggled to his feet and started moving forward, his chakra, the ample quatity of it that there was, surged in his veins and stole away some of the sanity, it made his muscles work better and made him stronger.

It was with an almost panicked shock that Orochimaru turned to look at the blonde, he was still moving, still conscious, the crazed look was gone, but now it seemed like he was a man who had everything to lose, and didn't want anything. It was no longer madness, it was trying to be madness but it lacked the profound quality from earlier. Even so, he was charging, long rips erupting from the tree as he charged. The sannin snarled and grabbed onto one of the boy's outstretched arms, spinning and hurling him with all the momentum into another tree beyond, a long gash along his arm to accompany the humiliation of losing. His initial plan now long gone, and the Kyuubi indisposed, Orochimaru shot off like a bat out of hell.

_This isn't over, Sasuke-kun._

-

Torment and agony, Naruto is sane, what now shall he do, when life seems to have meaning?


End file.
